A properly built steel or aluminum frame is not likely to break under any conditions unless used to jump obstacles. In the 1970s a lot of the early "mountain" bikes have frame and fork failures as the builders were still learning their way. The examples given where an altered bike has a problem is not relevant to a stock bike from the manufacturer. If one considers that between 15 and 20 million bikes are sold in the USA each year and therefore that there are more than 200 million in use, if frame breakage was common we would have thousands of incidents.

The so called "touring frames" are not stronger, only heavier and this makes them less reliable in terms of damage to the wheels. It is why this type of bike is no longer being made as it is not really needed for even world touring. In the old days the touring type bikes had more relaxed geometry which now corresponds to what is found on most gravel bikes. But that is a problem that dates back more than 30 years.A properly built steel or aluminum frame is not likely to break under any conditions unless used to jump obstacles. In the 1970s a lot of the early "mountain" bikes have frame and fork failures as the builders were still learning their way. The examples given where an altered bike has a problem is not relevant to a stock bike from the manufacturer. If one considers that between 15 and 20 million bikes are sold in the USA each year and therefore that there are more than 200 million in use, if frame breakage was common we would have thousands of incidents.

The so called "touring frames" are not stronger, only heavier and this makes them less reliable in terms of damage to the wheels. It is why this type of bike is no longer being made as it is not really needed for even world touring. In the old days the touring type bikes had more relaxed geometry which now corresponds to what is found on most gravel bikes. But that is a problem that dates back more than 30 years.