Originally Posted by
bnewberry
I doubt it was a specification issue, I am sure it was just a poorly done braze job. Chances are it would have held up just fine without the extra stress I put on it by forcing the wider hub and the subzero weather we had this winter. Hopefully the rest of the rear triangle was done better. The 600 series in this year's production had the rear triangle brazed in Asia and got joined to the main triangle in Wisconsin.
As for alignment, I have no doubt that a production bike will not get the care in alignment that a custom bike gets. If it rolls straight enough it is good enough.
The defective frames we are talking about did not roll down the road straight at all! I straightened mine over a pair of park benches, while jumping up and down on the bike-turned-trampoline.
I luckily arrived at a straight-riding bike in short order, and which spared me the hassle of getting the budget-priced leftover 720 warranted by Trek.
I still have the bike, it now has 700c Mod4 rims on re-spaced, solid-hi-flange Specialized Tandem hubs.
It has endured much commuting mileage and a few collisions with cars in L.A. and still rides nice and straight.
The metals we are talking about are not all that sensitive to atmospheric temperatures so yes, the brazing was just plain deficient in one way or the other.