Sorry if it has seemed like I have been ignoring everyone's advice, I really appreciate all the help.
I understand that it is well known that aluminium can suddenly break once it has a stress fracture, but where I'm coming from is the fact that there are probably thousands of people cycling around with tiny cracks like the one seen here that will never notice them, not everyone with an aluminium bike carries out routine inspections of their frame(in fact I would say hardly anyone does).
Also, I haven't been able to find one account online of an aluminium head tube that failed on a road bike. There is a lot less stress on the head tube than on other areas of the bike such as the down tube, chainstays & seat stays. Plus the fact that sudden catastrophic failures are extremely rare and as Sheldon Brown said head tube failures are relatively unheard of. That's why I have been reluctant to accept that it is a write off.
And now of course I feel like keeping it again after typing all of that! (But I won't)
Sorry if it has seemed like I have been ignoring everyone's advice, I really appreciate all the help.
I understand that it is well known that aluminium can suddenly break once it has a stress fracture, but where I'm coming from is the fact that there are probably thousands of people cycling around with tiny cracks like the one seen here that will never notice them, not everyone with an aluminium bike carries out routine inspections of their frame(in fact I would say hardly anyone does).
Also, I haven't been able to find one account online of an aluminium head tube that failed on a road bike. There is a lot less stress on the head tube than on other areas of the bike such as the down tube, chainstays & seat stays. Plus the fact that sudden catastrophic failures are extremely rare and as Sheldon Brown said head tube failures are relatively unheard of. That's why I have been reluctant to accept that it is a write off.
And now of course I feel like keeping it again after typing all of that! (But I won't)