A Langster in the Winter...

Hi all,

One of my friend in NY bought a Langster a couple of years ago. I don't remember when exactly, but it was that year when the Langsters came in this rusty colour, and for the 1st time with carbon seat post and fork, protection steel plates on the drop-outs, and both free wheel and fixed sproket (there were none of all these the years before...) The good thing about him being in the US, is that he had a choice of 2 finishes (in UK only the rusty one was available) and he went for the brushed/natural aluminium one, much nicer.

My friend does not cycle a lot anymore... I think my mum, who used to ride a supermarket mass produced Eddy Merckx is cycling more that him. Actually even my grand mother when she was still cycling was using her bike more...

So, he does not use his bike a lot at all. And he stores it on his balcony.
Recently he tells me that he went to have a look at his Langster to check it and he was concerned about the damages caused by the weather on his bike. I told him not to worry, this was I thought mainly cosmetic, and a bit of TLC would sort that out. But the following day he had a closer look and O HORROR!, he saw that the frame was broken, at a chainstay!! Considering he is not freestyling with his bike, although when we were students we used to ride mountain bikes a lot in the Auvergn volcanos (beautifull there BTW) and he knows how to jump and that kind of stuff, I suggested that maybe that hapened when he moved last year, maybe his bike was dismountled and something squashed it when there was no spacer to keep the back triangles in place... But he said that he did not dismountle the bike then...

He went to the shop were he got the bike from, and the theory of his mechanics is as follow: the frame got filled with water because of staying constantly on the balcony, and then when the winter came (it is freezing big time in NY) the ice volume just broke the frame!

His retailer suggested to him that Specialized were pretty good when it came to replace frames within the 5 years garantee, even if in that case there was no obvious fault in the product. In the other hand the "ice theory" can be wrong... Happy ending he was given a new 2009 frame last week... He should be taking better care of his bike now... he told me he ordered a brooks saddle for it, which is a good reason enough to keep the bike inside from now... I sure that's all a good boost for him to go back on the road again, and that's good...

I had never heard something like this so I though it might be of interest here... Unfortunately, I have got no pictures of the broken frame...

Szia

Loic

moral of the story is:

if you think you made a mistake buying that lang5ter then all you have to do is leave it outside but remember to pour some water inside the tubes. i wonder if this ploy can work for uniparks and how long you would have to leave it for.
nice tale

Saying that there is sometimes (maybe only on cheap bikes) a 1/2mm diameter hole at the underside of seat stays near the drop outs... Maybe this is the reason...

L

Good story, Loic.

Nice story.

corrosive tale