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View Full Version : Cracked Co-Motion frame!!!



Doggus
10-23-06, 08:49 AM
We did it!!! We cracked our frame without going down in a firey crash. She's just barely a year old and we managed to crack her. Why so excited? Cause the whole bike shop where we bought it had to stop business and everyone came to see the Co-Motion with a DEFECTIVE crack in the frame!!! No one has ever seen a cracked Co-Motion frame without being in a crash.

Glad we have a Co-Motion with a lifetime warranty. This shouldn't cost me a dime to fix, we'll see how that warranty holds up.

On several past rides, I've noticed a little 'grease' running down the side of the stoker seat tube. First time I saw I thought maybe I had spilled something on it while servicing the bike. Cleaned it up and moved on. Then I saw the same marking again a couple weeks later. Thought to myself...what the hell am I doing to this bike. It seemed like I would spotted it after I would service the bike (I always wash it at that point too). Then this weekend, we were sitting at the feeding trough after the ride and I spotted the tale-tale lube running down the seat tube. So me and one other rider inspect it and low and behold and crack running horizontal across the seat tubing, across the weld and into the top tube. The crack is about .5" long. You can barely see it but we can tell it's all the way through since there is stuff seeping out of the crack. No one seems to know what the black is coming out other than it might be the seat post grease.

Not sure what Co-Motion is going to do to fix this. I'm assuming they'll be cutting and rewelding in some new tubing. Our LBS told us we could probably get the paint job we always wanted now since they're gonna have to repaint the bike anyway. Not sure if they'll just replace the frame. I'm no bike maker.

They're going to take photos this morning and I'll hopefully get hold of the images and post them here.

We we're signed up to ride our local tandem club's two-day overnight ride this weekend too. It was supposed to be a really cool ride :(

transam
10-23-06, 10:10 AM
Co-Motion should replace the frame instead of doing a fix like you're talking about. Can you imagine going down a long grade at 45mph on a bike that had a cracked frame and was scabbed back together? Scary!!!

Looking forward to seeing before and after pics. Hope you get that custom paint job.

bockwho
10-23-06, 10:34 PM
scab patch it and let me see some booger welds .. ill ride it..... the ablitly to weld is a art that I do not have ... as long as its done right it will be safe. ever flown on a airplane ... your trusting someones welding

mrfish
10-30-06, 07:21 AM
Yes you are trusting welding when you fly. What you're not doing is trusting something which has been modified or repaired without thought using unproven techniques. Normally modifications to original designs only take place with very careful though and testing by people who are expert in aircraft design. This is why people who want to design and build their 'plane either have to get inspected by the CAA and build it to the original design, or build it under a 'experimental' category, i.e. you're on your own when it comes to safety.

I wouldn't be very happy to fly in a jetliner registered under the 'experimental' category and wouldn't ride a commercially produced tandem on that basis either.

zonatandem
10-30-06, 09:59 PM
We've put 57,000 miles on our Co-Motion custom tandem. No problems.
If you are the original owner of the Co-Mo, it will be fixed.
In our 31+ years of tandeming, we've broken two tandem frames and one fork (not Co-Mo) and all were fixed gratis by the builder(s).
Sometimes stuff happens . . .