Multiple head tubes broken, is crime gangly-related?

Hi there,

The head tube on my old (early 80s) Raleigh racer has cracked and broken. Have a look:

It's not the first time this has happened to me. In fact it's the third break in exactly the same part of the frame. All frames were old-ish, average quality Raleighs with no obvious signs of weakness. Each time I only noticed the crack/break when it started to feel and sound strange.

Ignoring the obvious question of "why did you continue to buy the same type of frame, particularly after the second break?", I was wondering if anyone has seen this kind of break occurring regularly. From a check of the forums it seems it's quite rare.

Now onto the "gangly-related" bit. I'm 6'6", and the frames have all been large (24 - 25"). This means they're still a bit small for me, and my normal riding style is standing over the handlebars, possibly putting more pressure directly onto the head tube than it was designed for. I also think that these larger frames might have to take more stress on the bottom of the top tube since the top tubes are longer, but have no idea.

So I'm feeling confused and a bit stupid, I was half-way into buying another cheap old Raleigh frame when I realised I might have to change tack here.

Any ideas?

you aren't having much luck are you

but realistically steel frames should last for ever pretty much ... unless they are being badly mistreated

sorry there was another poster here a week or two back who aolso had two frames snap on him
i thought it was you !

but still all the same old classic steels should last pretty well

Do you hop off of kerbs often?

Most Raleighs of that sort of vintage would have been brazed in an oven, rather than by hand with a torch, so I would imagine that it was easier to weaken the tubes in the brazing process by overheating (or frequently heating/reheating) them than with a torch-brazed frame. But on the other hand, they wouldn't have been made from particularly delicate tubing.

You do seem to have been unlucky. But also, ^ this?

Even though I'm prone to the odd bump, usually I'm quite careful when it comes to kerbs. Particularly after the first time the frame broke.

I mention the height thing because I met someone else who'd had the same problem, himself 6'4 or something.

I’ve experienced exactly the same type of problem with a Raleigh K2 Reynolds frame, the brazing failed where the seat stays join on either side of the down tube. There was no warning prior to the joints failing, the frame had been looked after all its life and not mistreated. Unfortunately from my experience to often than not Raleigh products from the 1980’s and 1990’s just suffer from poor manufacture quality so I wouldn’t say it’s a completely unlikely coincidence that you’ve had two frames fail in the same way.

I had a raleigh pursuit some years ago. Bought from the local tip and was late 80s i think. That cracked around the bottom bracket to chainstay and later the same place yours has.
It was a pretty big frame if i remember right, i had the seat slammed and it was still to big.
Best bike i ever had.

*too