Top tube dent - fatal?

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by Nessism

I would expect a significant financial settlement for a frame damaged like that. The dent itself could be greatly improved by a good body man. Glue-on dent puller may help a goodly bit. Personally, I wouldn't rid the bike as is, I'd get the dent pulled to the greatest extent possible first.

As an aside, I got hit by a golf course service vehicle (long story) and the down tube on my bike took a hit, similar to shown. I fixed the bike and rode it a fair bit more. Being that I built the frame, and had other bikes to ride, I decide to try my hand at a down tube replacement. As soon as I cut the down tube to remove it, the frame stepped significantly out of alignment. I was surprised. There was a lot of residue stress in the frame from the wreck. Bottom line: things are not always as they appear.

Glue on dent puller works on a little bike tube like that?

[Novasfyre]

Well, Bingham Bikes says they don't think it's safe to ride as is, but I am curious if that is just a liability thing. If they said it's ok and it caused a crash kind of thing.

[p nut]

Originally Posted by Novasfyre

Well, Bingham Bikes says they don't think it's safe to ride as is, but I am curious if that is just a liability thing. If they said it's ok and it caused a crash kind of thing.

A couple of years ago, I was riding at 5mph on my Caad10 and fell over. Handlebar put a nice little ding on the TT.
Pretty much everyone said it was ok to ride. Probably was.

I sold it to some fellow who wasn’t as risk-adverse as I was (with full disclosure). I just don’t want that in the back of my head as I’m flying down a canyon at 50mph.

I just don’t want any more risk when riding than the inherent risk already present.

[lorenbike]

Originally Posted by benb

I would totally send the All City back since you just paid for it and it wasn't listed as dented.

But that said.. I'm pretty sure after the apocalypse Keith Richards will be riding an All City.

Those frames are really built to take abuse. High weight ratings and the ED coatings seem to be incredibly tough.

I would actually like it if my Space horse somehow gave up the ghost so I could justify replacing it with something nicer.

But I think I could probably run it over with my Subaru and it would survive.

I have basically rode mine every winter, sometimes put it away wet and covered in road salt blah blah blah. It's going to be 12 years old soon and it almost still looks brand new. Absolutely zero rust and it has never had frame saver or anything done to it.

Same experience with my space horse too.

I have a Surly mountain bike frame I purchased new that has accumulated similar dents as OP. Ironically, their frames are made from lead pipe but I seemingly can't figure out how they dent so easily (never crashed, toppled over, any sort of impact, etc). There's a few dents on the side of the downtube like that but I've ridden for 1000s of miles without any issues.

[tellyho]

My son rode this IF daily to school and on a weeklong tour before he fully outgrew it.

[djg21]

Originally Posted by Novasfyre

It's not really the sellers fault as he paid a shop to pack it. I'm not going to pay just to send a worthless bike back across the country.

If the packing was substandard, I’d expect the shop that was paid to pack the bike to pony up and pay the cost of having the frame repaired and repainted, or replaced. That may be something that the seller would have to take up with the shop. I’d talk to the seller, have him talk to the shop, and try to handle things amiably. If the seller doesn’t want to make the effort, I’d send the bike back and let the seller deal with it. Hopefully you paid in a way that allows you recourse. If the fault was with Bikeflights, that’s something else. I’d be shocked if Bikeflights doesn’t tell you that the packing was the issue and it is faultless.

[Novasfyre]

Turns out bikeflights requires the entire bike if they total it out, so whether or not the dent is too severe is somewhat of a moot point. If they approve the claim off it goes.

[Novasfyre]

Originally Posted by djg21

If the packing was substandard, I’d expect the shop that was paid to pack the bike to pony up and pay the cost of having the frame repaired and repainted, or replaced. That may be something that the seller would have to take up with the shop. I’d talk to the seller, have him talk to the shop, and try to handle things amiably. If the seller doesn’t want to make the effort, I’d send the bike back and let the seller deal with it. Hopefully you paid in a way that allows you recourse. If the fault was with Bikeflights, that’s something else. I’d be shocked if Bikeflights doesn’t tell you that the packing was the issue and it is faultless.

That would be between bikeflights and the shop however, as bikeflights premium protection is applicable for bikes packed by shops. They give that as one of the requirements for the protection, so I think it's an either or thing (they approved a claim for a bike I shipped because I got tons of pictures of the overkill packing I do). It's not the sellers responsibility to check the packing since that's why they paid a shop.

[aliasfox]

My Bianchi got a top tube dent from a bike rack when it was less than a year old. Took off the top layer of paint, and now there's a spot of base layer/primer showing through, but no bare metal. Been riding her for 19 years now, about 1,700 miles in the past year. I also don't expect any resale value for the frame... but more because she's 19 years old :-)

If it was insured by BikeFlights or whatever, I'd probably get it taken care of by them - unless you were just planning on pulling the parts anyway.