Interesting thread. Glad the tour ended on a high note.

Man, those are the worst welds evar!

On long tours, I always carry bailing wire. Ever since I saw some amazing jury rigging out in the mountains of BC. Old timers had everything held together with the stuff -- pickup trucks, farm equipment ....

So I've always figured, if a tube ever separated from a lug, or something like the catastrophe illustrated here, I could find something to reinforce the tube and wrap it in bailing wire. I betcha that'd be a better solution than those "welds" which probably further weakened the frame!