Dropouts

[jpw]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29531184@N06/show/

See photo number six from the left along the bottom row.

Perhaps my eyes are going, but is the chain stay dropout 'ear' 'closed' as it appears to be in this photo? I had thought the opening went all the way through to the inside.

[Brian Smith]

The hole in the peanut has been restored.
Additional, but somewhat outdated info here:
http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?p=584373

The wall of that feature has been made thicker/stronger in response to infrequent breakage occurrence. Serotta is able to quickly make changes like these, and maintain strict control of the quality of parts finding their way into the bikes, as a result of making them all in-house in their own computer numeric control machine shop.

The frame in that photo set is probably a year old or maybe slightly less than a year old. The change had not yet been made.

[jpw]

Slightly unsure here.

So are the dropouts now 'closed', thus adding the structural strength necessary to avoid the possibility of such cracking?

Or, are they 'open', but made with more material in the stress zone to make them stronger?