Personally, I am not as concerned with the PVC breaking. It certainly can break but only if bent past its point of flexibility and I agree that bitter cold will reduce that point. On a bike though, the stress points are at the joints especially at the head tube and bottom bracket. I did mention earlier I filled the chain and seat stays with epoxy to stiffen them up and I reinforced both the bottom bracket and head tube joints. This was done by heating the tube ends to promote adhesion and then wrapping them in epoxy soaked hemp ribbon. On the initial ride the were some creeks that were unnerving but since then I've about 20 miles in silence. This certainly is no race bike and I doubt that I will ever even try to sprint on it. But it is a good functional, casual bike that will be great for slow and pub rides. It definitely has a peculiar soft feel to the ride and it will take a while to get completely confident of it. Till then I'm glad I experimented with it cause it's kinda cool and unique.