I purchased a Windsor Tourist from Bikes Island and knew it was going to have scrapes and scuffs, but when I got it it had a dent in the downtube. They gave me a partial refund I am happy with (great service from them IMO), but now I wonder if I can ride the bike with this damage. Part of me thinks its fine and part of me thinks I can afford to get a replacement frame if needed to. I am looking for some thoughts and advice. Here are some pics. Thanks for your feedback.

EDIT: this is a steel 4130 cro-moly frame.

Personally I would have sent it back for a full refund.

I assume this is a steel bike. If so, this is a pretty bad dent, but not likely to be catastrophic, or lead to sudden failure. Interestingly, the cheaper the frame the longer it'll last before it finally (if ever) lets go. That's because high alloys are somewhat less ductile, and more prone to eventual fatigue.

Go ahead and ride it as is, or if you like, you can camouflage it with some body filler and some trim. Wears ago when I was in retail we had adhesive foil tape in Olympic colors, and could often make repairs look like intentional trim.

As you ride it, bare of filled and covered, keep an eye open for any crack propagation, which will probably start at the edges of the dent. This could happen in months, years or decades. Steel crack propagation is fairly slow, so if you keep an eye on it you should have plenty of warning of imminent failure.

i would reinforce that area with filler metal and take the weight penalty. thats a big dent.

That's quite a "whack," even for a "scratch 'n' dent" sale. It appears to have ovalized the tube to the point where the cable rubs. OTOH if it rides okay you can assume the tube wasn't bent to a point where handling was compromised. Since it's steel I'd shape the tube with a hammer just enough to eliminate the "cable rub," wrap with duct tape and ride.

Its fine. Ride away.

I'd check the frame's alignment (string from rear DO, around head tube and back to other side DO then measure string to seat tube - should be same distance on both sides). If the alignment is off, I'd return it as there is more than just a dent in the tube. If the alignment checks OK, I'd ride it.

it's more likely because the tubes are thicker.
thicker, more material means more resistant to buckling.

wow that looks very bad- I would always be afraid to smash my teeth out with that much damage.

Welcome to the Windsor club. I don’t think the dent looks that bad and it is half way down the down tube by the looks of it. The down tube is in tension I would think and that’s better for a dent than a compression member. If it shifts and rides well and you are not planning on loading the bike to some extreme amount and or riding it super aggressive I think you are fine. With it being a touring bike it’s built to take some weight I have had 300 plus pounds on mine without problem.

I bought mine used also and I haven’t seen to many for sale. One issue I and others have had is spoke tension. If you plan on riding it or if you plan on swaping the wheels over to something else have them checked over and trued and tensioned.

This will show others location of dent.

Thanks for all the feedback. This isn't my first Windsor and its the 3rd bike I have purchased from Bikes Island.

I am certainly not concerned about the looks of the bike. What type of metal filler is suggested to reinforce the tube if I decide I want to do that?

I don't think the damage is significant enough to have bent the tubing and effect how it rides but I'll check to be certain.

I have no issues with the cost of the bike because even if the frame was trash I got a heck of a deal on it for just the parts and sending it back wasn't an option if they gave me a reasonable refund which they did with no hassle.

Keep the thoughts coming but I am leaning towards riding it as is and enjoying a frame that doesn't matter if it gets scratched up and a dirt cheap do it all type bike.

That dent will make a nice deterent to potential thieves, which is a bonus. Before riding it, I would check the frame's alignment with the piece of string method described above.

you can't reinforce a dent with filler. You are better off leaving it the way it is so you can observe any potential cracking

bud -- turn those brake levers upward, there's no way you can ride on the hoods in that position!

Ride on the hoods??? LOL. But I like riding in the drops. If you look close I do have a second set of hoods (stoker hoods) where they are supposed to be. Just in case I get the urge to move up there. It’s a different setup but it works for me.

To the OP I agree with the above posts don’t fix the dent it’s a beauty mark that would deter a thief and also it’s a good idea to be able to keep an eye on the dent. Just take a good cleaner wax to it and get all that smeared paint away and it might not look as bad as it does now and it will keep rust out.

Let me show you a "dent" that a friend of mine still rides without issue. It was from an attempted theft - the lock held up - and this "dent" will probably prevent any future attempted thefts. Long story short, your dent will be fine. If anything catastrophic happens it will happen slowly with steel and you'll notice more bending before anything truly bad happens. It's not just going to snap one day

If that dent were in the top tube I'd say toss it. But the downtube is under tension instead of compression. So for casual commuting or errand riding it'll be fine. On the other hand if you ride hard up lots of steep hills where you're really torqueing and twisting the frame you may find that this dent will tend to flex more than it should.

^^^^^^^^^

This.

Yup

Yeah, the only way to 'repair' that would probably be to braze or weld a sleeve over it.

It looks like a big dent, though. I am going to go against the grain here... while cheaper bikes generally have thicker tubing, a dent in thicker tubing will actually mean the material is more stressed than a similar dent would be with thinner tubing. The reason is that as a thicker item bends, the material on the outer faces needs to deform more than it would on thinner material (think aluminum foil vs the quarter panel on a truck), and so it is more like that there is or will be some type of crack or failure beginning on one of the the surfaces.

I would personally send that back, but I would say you still have a fair chance of getting years of trouble free riding out of it. You also have a small chance of landing teeth first against a curb.

Edit: On second look, the crack is not too bad - I have certainly ridden steel frames with worse dents. My comment about the stress involved in bending thin vs bending thick material stands, though. And you still have an increased risk of failure, but I would guess not too big a risk. Please take all comments here at the same value you should give to every opinion on the internet (~=0). Use your better judgement and inspect it regularly for anything that looks like a crack, and if you see a crack, stop riding it immediately. Start putting money in a jar to be ready to buy a replacement frame (Many similar quality frames are $100 or less from internet vendors). If you plan to use a 'swear jar' system to save the money, I'll get you started... **** **** **** ******* with a bannana and then **** the **** out of that mother****er with a ****ing ********** ****rag ****** ****.

You're welcome!