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Great that she is ok and the frame took most of the impact.
Something that came to mind when looking at the photo of the downtube damage: I wonder if the dynamo routing hole played a part in focusing the failure at that location, and whether that relates to where the tube butting thickness changes? It might've interesting to see what the tube looks like cut in half longitudinally.
Cupcakes-
I think it could also be that it is the butting that decides where the bend happened. I believe the reinforcement ring will actually make the tube stronger locally as there is more material (???). In this case it looks like the reinforcement ring placement is just around where the butting would be happening... Unless it isn't a butted tube...
In any case most road bike / gravel appropriate steel tubes will fail on head on collision. I've been doored at slow pace and still managed to bend the Zona 35mm down tube on my road bike.
@hollow__legs Good call on staying 1 1/8" head tube. No need for anything else imo.
And much love for getting the frame repaired rather than getting a new one. This is the way! -
You are more than welcome to dissect it one it’s removed. It does look as though the crease occurred where the tube changes thickness, but as you say, the hole (I believe it’s for the cable guides, not dynamo routing) could also have been the weak spot.
@Hulsroy Yes, that tube is butted, although I can’t quite remember what series of Columbus it is.
Keeping 1 1/8 kinda limits fork options a bit but it means we won’t need to replace the hub and the headset. QR wheels and external headsets are totally fine for cruising about all day.
Hulsroy
hollow__legs
In other related news, Mrs. Legs crashed her bike at speed straight into a massive gate while we were out on a 200km DIY.
Thankfully she was totally fine which is a minor miracle given how spectacular the crash looked. Given the crumpling on the frame, it appears the bike took most of the impact.
The bike has been given a look over at our LBS and - surprise, surprise! - the frame and fork are a write off but thankfully everything else is ok including the front Son dyno wheel.
The frame has been stripped and will be dropped off to the frame builder who will remove the top tube, downtube and headtube, and replace them with new tubes. We did consider replacing the external 1 1/8 headtube with an internal tapered one but that would mean replacing the Hope headset and Son hub, not to mention bumping the cost up significantly.
She’ll probably get it powder coated after the repairs. Mint and lemon seem to be strong contenders at the moment.