Cracked IF Planet X?

#stahlofon

A small crack in carbon/alu is game over (or hundreds of pounds), but a crack in steel is 20 mins with a brazing torch and can be done all over the UK

I agree with you about Alu, but I think my point is that mending steel actually isn't always just 20 mins with a torch, and actually often isn't economic.

Steel will also cost you a couple of hundred pounds to do properly. Mercian charge c£100 to repair / replace a tube. No idea if that includes the tube, but let's say it does. Admitidly that's well established brand, but they are also outside LDN and I doubt you'd get it much cheaper anyway. You won't get much change (if any) from £100 for a decent respray either.

There are loads of great reasons to chose steel as a material choice. But let's not kid ourselves that for most people being able to repair it really isn't the real world factor people often make out - no mater how much it's nice to think that it is.

@dammit - right, but those are basically the only 5 out there aren't they, and you have nabbed them because they are so few, not because yodel can't be trusted to deliver in a timely manner ;)

Surely issue here, if there is one, is compromised design for the UK (i.e. sealed steel tube) plus poor maintenance (i.e. me) plus TIG welded 853 frame. No more, no less and certainly not steel v carbon or any other frame material.

You're not wrong. Strange design, especially for a cx frame that's gonna get ridden in wet/muddy conditions, how many people even think about popping out the seatpost, flipping the bike, and letting a frame dry out?

Dunno, but when things get really bad I'm pretty much rebuilding my CX bike each week.

But yeah I wouldn't expect it to die horribly if I didn't.

Assume when people say the tube was sealed, does that mean there was no way for water entering via the seatpost to exit in to then out of the BB?

Fair point, but surely a drainage hole at bb/st junction is a must, and then one at bottom of bb shell.

Yeah that does strike me as a bit suicidal. I think that people racing on steel bikes might be a bit more aware of the need for preventative maintenance, but I can't see what the advantage is for anyone in not having some kind of drainage system.

Steel will also cost you a couple of hundred pounds to do properly

@Skant's Orlowski cracked at the BB junction and was repaired and repainted free of charge. Not saying he would have done the same for a tube replacement but hes obviously very reasonable.

You also said how mercian charge £100 for a replaced tube. Find me someone in the UK (or elsewhere) that can replace and alu/carbon tube for that little and I'll eat my words

You're absolutely right. I've worked on a few IF bikes. I've had a Ti one that was eating expensive BBs because there was no drain hole, when I removed the BB shells there was loads of water in there. And I've seen another steel IF that rotted out at the base of the seat tube.

A builder is taking a pretty big chance assuming that water's not going to get into a frame at some point, so I can't understand why you wouldn't provide a route for it to get out.

Same here. Found no end of rusty BBs and BB shells. A little hole is all it takes, although I'd generally try and not do it infront of the customers as they'd think I was ruining the frame.

Can't believe builders (especially custom ones) don't do it as standard.

The thinking is probably that with a small hole in the bottom of a BB shell there's a much greater chance of serious dirt and grime getting into the BB shell; without the hole water has to filter in through the seat-tube.

I'm really struggling to understand the sealed tube design as water is going to get in there so much better to have a hole to let it drain out. And as for a sealed seat tube on a cross frame.....

csb. My frame discharged a fair amount of water noticeably only once. Probably a good cup full out of the seat stays (I could not believe what I saw) when I wheelied it out of the garage at 180 degrees in the morning . The day before I had been riding from Albertville to the Col du Glandon and Croix de Fer in arguably the wettest I have ever ridden in until it stopped raining somewhere in the Maurienne valley.

Don't ask how all that water got into the frame. No idea.

As I ride non corroding metal the issue here is I schlepped all this weight over the mountain.