scoot6453

I realize that this topic has probably been beaten to death.

Has anyone actually ever had or known of an experience of an aluminum frame breaking? Yes, I've read many of the links about fatigue and comparisons to steel, Ti, and carbon fiber. I also know many folks who put their aluminum bikes through much abuse and are still cruising around on their Cannondales from the 80's just fine.

I ride a 2004 Lemond Reno. I weigh 140 and put in about 70 miles per week. I love the feel of this bike can aggressively attack hills with its firmness and weight. I'm just wondering when to expect my bottom bracket to fall out from under me after all this talk about aluminum frames prone to breaking.

royalflash

you are right we have beaten this one to death see:

https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/48564-aluminium-frame-failures-myth-fact.html

velo

I've never actually heard of an aluminum frame breaking. However, a few years back, I discovered a crack in my aluminum frame and was forced to replace it. It would have broken.

DXchulo

Anything can break if you try hard enough. Remember those unbreakable combs they used to give us in elementary school on picture day? They weren't really unbreakable, but would you ever break one combing your hair? They'd only break when kids like me were thinking, "Unbreakable my ass!"

sydney

Find something else to worry about,or ride the pizz out of it for 5 years,sell it and let someone else worry about it.

velo

True. If it breaks, it happens. Is it likely? No. So don't worry about it. Just enjoy the ride.

F1_Fan

Everything breaks in time... once a year during your annual overhaul (or cleaning) strip the bike down and inspect it if that makes you more comfortable. In my opinion that's a good practice for anyone...

I've got a 13 year old Specialized Allez Epic (CF/Al) that gets that treatment every six months. In the past year I discovered a cracked Dura-Ace crankarm and a cracked Dura-Ace rear hub body.

Stuff fails proportional to weight and stress. I weighed 235lb when returning to cycling and am now 170lb so it's not shocking that I broke some parts. At 140lbs you have nothing to worry about... you'll be upgrading that bike before anything fatigues

So what am I saying? Maintain your bike, then stop worrying, ride it and be happy!

turtlendog

I recently broke the chain-stay on a 4-year-old Specialized M4 that had a little over 15K miles on it. I'm about 220# and have also cracked a DuraAce and a Sram chain on the same bike, if that tells you anything about how hard I rode it. While it was a 'catastrophic failure' in the sense that I couldn't ride the bike home, it really wasn't in the sense that the bike was still easily controlable. I should also note that the M4 was a bike used by Festina in the TDF. I think it's fair to say that this bike sacrificed more reliability for weight than the average bike would.

I also cracked the frame on my 5-year-old Giant Warp with a little over 1k off-road miles on it. Again, I have ridden it hard: jumps (though probably rarely if ever over 5ft off the ground), rock gardens at 40 mph. etc. This frame didn't actually break, but began to feel loose in the back. I noticed the cracks when I washed my bike.

Both frames were replaced under warranty and I just bought another aluminium bike. If anything, I'd try a CF bike for comfort, rather than durability. I don't expect the BB or head-tube to fall off one of my bikes with no warning.

Iron Chef

Aluminum is a choice material for mountain bike frames. Road riding aint squat.

phantomcow2

"aluminum frames can break"
Load of ...

phantomcow2

well i correct myself, they CAN break, any frame can break. But in normal riding usage, ive never known anybody whos broken one.

froze

I call a cracked frame a broken frame since if you can't ride it then it most be broken. There is plenty of evidence that AL frames do fail more often then any other type of material; which is why most bike manufactures do not want to warranty a AL frame as long as their other materials they use. I have a friend that broke, or cracked, 4 different AL frames: one Vitus back in 86 he bought new and used it for 6 months, 2 Kliens and 2 Cannondales since the Vitus...thats about a bike every 5 years. BUT lets just get this part straight, he weighs 240 pounds 6' 4" tall and his weight is muscle not fat. I've also seen others crack as well as talked to LBS's that seen them crack.

But me saying I seen this, or I know a person, is just pure crap if you haven't been with me to know my friends; so read these sites and make your own mind up:

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/frames1.html (scan on the small arrow button at the far bottom right to read the next pages).

https://www.anvilbikes.com/story.php?news_ID=11&catID=3 (read some of the other stuff in the "related items" column for more education about related facts.

https://www.henryjames.com/faq.html

https://www.kirkframeworks.com/Philosophy.htm

https://rivendellbicycles.com/html/bicycling101.html (click on "Pure Opinions..."; "Frame Materials 101"; and interesting reading about "lugs 101" too).

zensuit

If you break that frame weighing 140 and riding 70/week, you should sue lemond

khuon

I've never cracked an Al frame myself and I realise this is the road cycling forum but a couple of years ago, my friend cracked his Gary Fisher Sugar 2 frame at the BB shell. We were both doing the same jump actually. My frame is thermoplastic CF monocoque and survived fine. His Sugar 2 was 6061 double-butted aluminum but snapped when he hit the landing wrong. Gary Fisher replaced the frame under warranty and he even got an upgrade to a CF rear triangle even though he had to put up with receiving a bling-bling gold frame as a replacement. However, this means nothing really as there are much more factours involved with durability than just the frame material.

2Rodies

I recently totalled my Cinelli Starlight (Starship tubing) in an accident. My knee hit the top tube and put a good size dent and a hairline crack.

shokhead

Just ride and dont even give it a second thought. End of Thread.

turtlendog

I just wanted to point out that in that case, it wasn't what I would call a catastrophic failure. I would have ridden it home (but I already was home when I noticed it).

Not really. Aluminium (as I understand) fatigues more than most other bicycle materials as it flexes. Any aluminium frame will crack after a certain amount flexing. The thing is, you wouldn't want to ride a bike that didn't flex at all, so at some point the frame will fail _if_ you ride it indefinately. Heavier (and stronger) people will flex the bike more, and be more likely to eventually have some kind of failure.

I believe that far less than 1% of aluminium bikes manufactured ever get ridden that much, but we're surfing the balance between comfort and durability.

SoonerBent

I have never had or seen a broken AL frame. But I do know of two broken steel frames. I had a Raleigh Competition that broke at the top tube/head tube junction and a friend had a Centurian Iron-Man that broke a seat stay just below the seat tube junction. Since both failures were in close proximity to brazes or welds I expect that construction problems (overheating the tubes) caused both. I watched as the head tube unattached itself from the rest of the bike on a bonded carbon frame during the Pro, Cat. 1,2 finish sprint at the Campus Corner Criterium in Norman a few years ago. Ouch! Also, the first tries at titanuim, ie. Teledyne, were known for breaking more often than not because they hadn't figured out how to weld titanium properly yet. So from my experience construction practices are at least as important to a frames longevity as material.

SS