my trusty gardin, which i've been riding daily for the last 18 months developed a severe crack in the head tube today. it's cracked almost all the way around, right through the lug at the junction of the head- and downtubes.

i was hammering around and kept hearing this funny little distressed metal sound everytime i got up out of the saddle. thought it could be my bb or my pedals or something. but everything was tight and recently serviced. then i thought it might be the cheap-ass headset i'm using right now and that's when i discovered the crack. i let out a big eff you see kay and this lady on the corner asked if i was alright. i said yah, but my bike isn't! sheeeit.

i can get this fixed at a local framebuild/repair place for only 60 bucks, but the guy told me there are no guarantees with this kind of thing and it could crack again. not to mention, it might look butt-ass ugly with some big gnarly weld. i guess i wno't know til the dude sees it and has a chance to work on it. i may have to make the gardin my sunday bike and get something newer and stronger.

i'm sure there are threads devoted to this, but if anyone reading this wants to suggest a good durable frame that has geometry that's closest to a true track frame, i'm all ears.

b-ride: owner of TWO cracked track frames. grrrrr!