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

[zmalwo]

Anyone had this experience? Is it possible for a properly maintained big brand alloy frame like Allez or Caad to crack or snap just by riding too much?

[mtechnica]

Yes and no. If it breaks it was from damage, a defect in the material or construction, or being used outside of what it was designed for (unlikely). Besides those reasons there's no reason one would ever randomly just break. They're designed to withstand all the forces normally seen in use. One caveat being aluminum has a fatigue life, so theoretically it might fail over the course of many years (hundreds of thousands of miles).

[Ryun]

Only a couple one offs years ago..
Bianchi Evo (I think that was the model) Super thin aluminum with foam cracked on me from normal albeit high use.
Specialized M2 (some sort of metal matrix ish alloy) chainstay cracked on the drive side pretty early one.
These were both in my racing days so heavy heavy miles

[fmradio516]

Yeah my Redline conquest pro's (alu) dropout just snapped, separating the chainstay and the seatstay. It was a commuter but it didnt have a ton of miles on it. Redline(Raleigh) still called it material fatigue so I am SOL.

[PacNW2Ford]

A friend had a Trek Portland crack near the BB after years of year-round commuting. Trek warrantied it, no problem.

[Peter P.]

A friend of mine had a Fuji 7005 series aluminum frame crack at the drive side chainstay behind the bottom bracket. It was just from use.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

Yes and no. If it breaks it was from damage, a defect in the material or construction, or being used outside of what it was designed for (unlikely). Besides those reasons there's no reason one would ever randomly just break. They're designed to withstand all the forces normally seen in use. One caveat being aluminum has a fatigue life, so theoretically it might fail over the course of many years (hundreds of thousands of miles).

I can't completely agree with this. Apart from actual defects, it is entirely possible that a frame is under-designed (or not intended to have long lives). Many aluminum frame manufacturers that offer lifetime warranties have declared that fatigue cracks (from normal riding) are considered to be normal wear and tear, and not covered by the warranty. (This includes the Trek and Cannondale frames the OP mentioned).

And yes, I've seen multiple aluminum frames that cracked just from lots of riding.

[NHAero]

This provided an opportunity to convert to belt drive!

Originally Posted by fmradio516

Yeah my Redline conquest pro's (alu) dropout just snapped, separating the chainstay and the seatstay. It was a commuter but it didnt have a ton of miles on it. Redline(Raleigh) still called it material fatigue so I am SOL.

[Blue Jays]

On the custom side of things...folks like Rock Lobster, Zanconato, K. Bedford, Gaulzetti, Spooky, FTW, Stoemper, and others seem totally comfortable building aluminum frames, so my inclination is to believe failures are infrequent.

[peanutgallery]

Sweat and time will kill just about any frame. Seen plenty of rotted and broken aluminum ones, that definitely goes past the normal life-span/wear and tear

Who wants to ride the same bike forever, anyways? After the better part of a decade standards/features change...for the better. If you don't feel that way...get a tweed suit and buy a Rivendell They'll make the same stuff until the end of days

[Red Tornado]

Back in the 90's a friend rode through a small G-out and on the way up out of it, a sharp rise, BOTH the top and down tubes broke at the head tube. Weird. It was Cannondale frame, can't remember exactly which model but it did have a Headshok. He went back to his old GT Zaskar LE for the remainder of the season. C-dale replaced the frame. He promptly sold the new frame, took the money, and bought a Spesh frame.

[dustyrider]

I have snapped a few aluminum mtb frames while riding them under normal off-road conditions. Nothing catastrophic but broken head tube/down tube juncture twice and bottom bracket three or four times and the occasional seat stay. Seen quite a few more bikes suffer the same problems. But then again, I did have an aluminum hardtail that was subjected to some of the worst abuse one can imagine and it never cracked even after years and years of neglect and abuse. I think it’s just a case of how the cookie crumbles...

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

I can't completely agree with this. Apart from actual defects, it is entirely possible that a frame is under-designed (or not intended to have long lives). Many aluminum frame manufacturers that offer lifetime warranties have declared that fatigue cracks (from normal riding) are considered to be normal wear and tear, and not covered by the warranty. (This includes the Trek and Cannondale frames the OP mentioned).

And yes, I've seen multiple aluminum frames that cracked just from lots of riding.

You're right, some are built better than others, I think a caad12 or smartweld would be better than most though.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by Ryun

Only a couple one offs years ago..
Bianchi Evo (I think that was the model) Super thin aluminum with foam cracked on me from normal albeit high use.
Specialized M2 (some sort of metal matrix ish alloy) chainstay cracked on the drive side pretty early one.
These were both in my racing days so heavy heavy miles

Same, M2, drive side, hard use.

[avalonracing]

Sure it CAN happen but on the other hand, I have a 19-year-old Klein Quantum Race (which is still competitively light by today's standards) that has around 50,000 miles and over 100 races on it and is still going strong.
If a frame is well built it can last a long time despite a lot of thrashing.