Steel frames, how much punishment can they take?

Posted on Wed 15th, June 2011

• #1

joshmoody

Hi,
i've got an old handbuilt road frame, 531 tubing and while out riding yesterday some bloke decided it'd be a great idea to park his trek madone on top of it
Long story short there is now a dent in the seat stay at the joint of where the back brake would normally go, its a fair size dent and seems to have deformed the seat stay a little, should i be worried about the strength of the frame or is it likely to be okay?
will try and get some photos uploaded asap if it helps.
thanks
• #2

|³|MA3K

Several units of punishment psi.
• #3

deleted

Depends on the percentage newness.
• #4

lae

Steel frames tend not to fail suddenly - it likely won't snap. Perhaps ride it and jump up and down on the cranks in your garden/on soft floor to see if it gets any worse.

You can always get the tube replaced by a framebuilder.
• #5

TW85

They will do up to 500 lines, but draw the line at attending saturday morning detention
• #6

BrickMan

they can take most things, but 12tonne buses tend to win out in a direct fight.
• #7

Pooface2

I would never ride a steel bike. ive heard that once the come into contact with water they start to rot and get all soft. Its like building a bike out of rice paper

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