Road Cycling - Ever done this?

Bought a brand new ORYX Racing 2300 aluminum bike in April 02. Put on about 18,500 km until November when I moved it inside onto a TACX mag trainer. Ride the trainer between 2.5 and 3hrs every day. While finishing up last night, I noticed a lot of flex in the BB (can you see where this is going?). Way too much flex on the drive side - I can see the cranks deflecting about an inch and a half! Do I stop? No, I finish up but stay in the saddle as its not moving as much when I do that. I finish and inspect the rear axle to see if its broken and causing the bike to shift in the stand, nope. Chain rings, bolts, crank? Nope. Broken frame? Yep. Right above the weld at the BB, downtube and seat tube. The crack runs parallel to the toptube a little more than half way around the seat tube. Nasty. The bike is less than one year old. I've never liked the cracking noise of aluminum, and I like it even less now! At least its January - hopefully the warranty frame is in before the weather turns warm (April). BTW, I'm 5'11 and weigh 158 lbs. Not exactly a bruiser.

Pictures of the frame available on request!

wow

that's a lot of riding you did!
~90km every day for seven months!

Most people don't/won't believe the mileage, and that's OK. In Jan. of 2001 I made a serious commitment to losing weight. I'd gotten up to 198 lbs. (34 yrs. old) - a long way from my riding weight when I was in my 20's. I think I caught the "Greg Lemond" syndrome - eating like I was still riding a lot, but not riding a lot. I typically get up at 4.30 a.m. in the summer, hit the road by 5 for 2 3/4 hours (around 80 km), work, ride for another hour to hit 110 - 115 km for the day. Rain (and sometimes snow) reduced mileage but I always put in the time. I lost 44 lbs. in about 5 months. I also overtrained. I've cut back to 3 hrs. a day in the winter and still try to get in 4 in the summer, but I still weigh myself every day. I don't ever want to go back to 198. I now look at food/calories as something I earn.

Carl, some manufactures will not warranty the frame if it used with a indoor trainer; due to the additional stress a trainer puts on the frame. You may want to look into this before contacting Oryx.

I'll find out tomorrow - the owner of the LBS where I purchased the bike is a friend from way back when we both worked in the now defunct LBS. It's always nice to have the owner go to bat for you with the manufacturer (if there are problems). Given the location of the crack, I'm guessing the weld was overheated. As my subject line suggests, I think (or at least, I hope) this happens fairly rarely.

Thanks for the head's up! :D :D

Well, I am truly sorry to hear that you have cracked your frame.

But, I am glad you wrote in about this. I just read last month a sidebar by a frame-builder who said, effectively, all trainers are bad for the frame. I have written up his warning in a couple of recent threads--just to make sure that everyone is aware of the potential. I feel a little bit like a spoil-sport to all those poor folks, suffering from bike-withdrawl in the winter months, who wanted to satisfy their habit on a trainer.

While I doubt your warranty is going to cover the break, I do hope that you can get it covered by insurance or something.

Best,
Jamie

Thankfully, Oryx carries a lifetime warranty on the frame. I've set up my mountain bike on the trainer and am riding again... very carefully.

I've set up my mountain bike on the trainer and am riding again
I rarely use my trainer but when I do, I always put my MTB on it (with slicks). I don't put my road bike on as it can damage frames, also I can't be bothered fitting old tyres to the road bike for a half hour session.

CHEERS.

Mark

Cracked the frame on a 10 month old trek.When i road i could here a clicking sound.The lbs couldnt figure it out.A rep from trek couldnt figure it out.They sent the bike back to trek and somebody figured it out but that took 3 months from the time the lbs had it to my replacement without a bike.That was a nice blue 98 so the lbs offered me a ugly green 99 and i said no.I wanted another blue.They said we dont have one.They said all we have in your size is a 2000 silver and i said i will take that.Worked out but was not happy with trek taking that long.