Originally Posted by
fuji86
That much of a crack and on the bottom of the top tube ? Perhaps most/all tubing is like this ? Perhaps the tubing when welded together was oriented like that intentionally because it makes no difference that way ? Effectively, a bow on the sides might indicate a frame turning a direction either way, but top & bottom, it's straight enough. Even on the sides, is it within tolerances of steel tube manufacturing specs ? I'd measure other bikes and if it's found to be the case across the board, it can't be a real problem ?
Fresh out of the box, most bicycle tubing is more-or-less perfectly straight, ie. when you roll it around on a flat surface there's no detectable runout. I have actually built a frame with a tube bent by about that degree, only noticing well after the frame was done. It doesn't affect the bike at all, but it's still a little annoying. Since that episode, I have rolled all new tubes on a flat granite surface. I've only had one tube show any noticeable runout since then, and it was replaced by the wholesaler with no questions asked.