Originally Posted by
HendersonD
That's really weird, cracking on the compression side in bending. Well away from the weld edge, so not due to stress concentration there. Very much a fatigue crack, so many repeated cycles. Plus the vertical crack starting at the very bottom of the slot/radius. Almost like, under rider weight, that part of the seat tube was buckling outward a very small amount, for many thousands of cycles. I'll look at the pics again in a sec to see if there was enough vertical length there for outward buckling at the slot.
The drilled hole may arrest crack propagation, but monitor and if new crack on the far side, you can drill larger. The problem is, with the cracks, the section modulus in bending has been drastically reduced.
Originally Posted by
mstateglfr
As posted in the same thread over in General...
- Buy whatever Trek will get you close to your $1300 credit.
- Sell that bike without riding it.
- Buy an REI ADV1.1 for $1000. https://www.rei.com/product/220761/c...es-adv-11-bike
- Be happy with your new touring bike that has good stock gear range.
Wait, you keep the 520 frame and components?
Just buy a replacement frame and move the components to the new frame. Surly, New Albion, Black Mountain, AllCity, etc all have steel frame and fork options for $1000 or less. Buy the frameset that has the geometry you like most and swap the components.
Then buy a new reek that costs $1200, sell it for whatever you can, and call it good.
Again- an REI touring bike is just over $1000 right now and is a legit solid ready to ride touring bike with tested geometry.
There is nothing inherently special about Trek. Spend the money and sell a bike to offset the cost for what you actually want.
That REI looks like a good deal with a chrome-moly frame and good components package, and I think they have a good warranty.