Have anyone ever snapped or cracked an alloy frame just by riding?

[Joxster]

I've broken Steel, Alloy, Carbon and Ti frames. Some would say that I'm hard on bikes, but they were all raced hard. I still have the first frame that was built for me as a hack bike and this frame will have done close to 300,000 miles in it's stays.

[fmradio516]

I broke a steel Peugeot seat tube, sheared at the bottom bracket shell, a steel frame chainstay cracking at the bottom bracket shell, a steel bottecchia head/top tube lug separating, and the recent aluminum Redline conquest at the rear dropout.

All commuters not ridden hard(the peugeot was my first adult bike). but I am hefty at 215 lbs, 6'3".

oh and the mighty vitus had its bottom bracket shell drop out completely mid-ride. But I dont count that. Its just a given.

[ultraman6970]

Yes you can... it can happen with steel and even carbon. But in aluminum the only thing I can tell you is that if fails it will fail anywhere but in the welds.

Material fatigue is always something no manufacturer can quantify IMO, some stuff had been around for 50 years of use and abuse and new stuff can go dead in a couple of months, you never know and thats the gamble when you buy something.

That's the reason too why manufacturers just give like 6 months to 24 months warranty to their stuff, because sure they dont know either.

[carpediemracing]

Originally Posted by earlfoss

I had one of those aluminium Giant ONCE team frames. The drive side chainstay sheared in half close to the dropout while I was literally JRA. All of a sudden I had suspension!

Giant replaced the frame immediately with no questions asked, which led me to believe it was a common problem.

I broke two of those frames, both frames broke chainstays near BB.

Broke Specialized M2, chainstay near BB.

Cannondale but I think it was crash induced, cracked chainstay (wasn't from dropping chain).

None of the cracks were from dropping chains, I think all of them were on the non drive side chainstay.

[carpediemracing]

When I managed a shop we sold a friend of mine a steel Pinarello. Downtube broke in half during a race, he didn't realize it for a few laps, finished the race thinking the bike felt awfully spongy, climbed off and realized there was a massive gap between the two pieces of downtube. Prorated warranty.

[tsarpepe]

Originally Posted by carpediemracing

When I managed a shop we sold a friend of mine a steel Pinarello. Downtube broke in half during a race, he didn't realize it for a few laps, finished the race thinking the bike felt awfully spongy, climbed off and realized there was a massive gap between the two pieces of downtube. Prorated warranty.

That's a nice story.

[Tandem Rider]

I've broken steel, aluminum, and CF. All without crashing, but all were raced and trained on hard. I've never crashed from a broken frame though. I broke a DT at the butt by the shifters once about 50 miles from home, pre-celphone days, solo ride, about '87 or so. That was a fun ride home.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by zmalwo

Now it makes me curious, How many people have cracked or snapped a steel frame before then? I heard steel is alot more resistant to repeated stress and haven't seen alot of steel failure online either...

I haven't cracked a steel frame (yet), but did have a steel fork blade crack. Fortunately, I found it before it the blade completely broke off.

[zmalwo]

Originally Posted by carpediemracing

When I managed a shop we sold a friend of mine a steel Pinarello. Downtube broke in half during a race, he didn't realize it for a few laps, finished the race thinking the bike felt awfully spongy, climbed off and realized there was a massive gap between the two pieces of downtube. Prorated warranty.

good thing it was a steel bike or he would have went to the hospital.