I was working on my dad's old '54 Raleigh sports. The bike was tweaked before I got it when it got into a fight with a snowmobile trailer that was being backed into his garage a little too far and met the bike on the far wall.

While the bike rode fine the wheel was not centered in the rear triangle. I measured it and needed to move both DO's over about 15mm to get it back to straight. I moved them over using the 2x4 method without any fuss but when I went to inspect the DO's to see if they needed straightening I found this crack in the drive-side DO.



The crack is between the arrows and goes all the way through and the metal is displaced slightly on both sides. I don't know if this happened when the bike was tweaked by the trailer or when I went to bring it back. I didn't hear any pop or noise and the frame moved over very easily. There is also a new scratch in the paint just below the crack which isn't a crack but was caused by my DO-straightening tool as I carefully eased the crack displacement back to as straight as I could get it and aligned the DO's.

This frame is sentimental but in horrible cosmetic shape. I haven't even ridden it after the straightening due to the crack so I don't know if my frame-straightening created any issues. I have a feeling that the geometry of these bikes is very forgiving since the bike visibly dog-tracked before and I could ride it before no-hands without any pulling or other handling issues even with the frame all wonked out to one side.

Now it looks straight to the eye (I bend pipe for a living so I've got a pretty good eye) and measures out straight -but the finish over the entire frame, fenders, and chaincase leaves a lot to be desired. There is much spray-paint and brushed-on paint built up over the years and the frame really needs to be refinished. I was thinking a powder-coat would be best. I just replaced the original rims with CR-18's so I had plans to ride it.

What are my options regarding this crack? Properly I'm thinking it should be V-cut and Tig-welded from both sides or the DO totally removed and replaced. Is it even possible to source these DO's? Maybe a donor bike? I'm worried that if it has fatigued enough to crack there it is fatigued elsewhere in that DO -or maybe not.

I'm wondering if I could open the crack .001" or just enough to do a halfway decent braze it if would hold or if I am just kidding myself.

I'd like to use this bike as a light rider and tweed runner rather than hanging it up in the garage or on the basement wall of my dad's place. I don't want it to be a safety issue where I end up crashing this bike due to a failure of the DO.

Since this is my dad's first bike that he bought new when he was a kid with his own paperboy money it has a decent amount of sentimental value so I'd like to do something with it and ride it -but I don't want to spend a ton of money on it either since the overall condition is marginal.

Does anyone think this can be successfully brazed or welded?

Clean that area of the dropout, put a tack weld on it, grind the weld smooth, follow up with black enamel touch up paint or the powder coat you desire. You'll be back up and running.

-Kurt

"What are my options regarding this crack? Properly I'm thinking it should be V-cut and Tig-welded from both sides..." --Amesja,

I think it can and should be welded.

Brad

+1.

take the question to the Framebuilders forum.
They may have a different take on it, maybe not.

And yes you can cross (double) post between here and there.

Marty

It is apparently not that uncommon and can be repaired with the V-cut Tig weld method. I presently have the same crack on a frame that I am taking to a framebuilder today. When I first noticed the crack, I thought the frame was toast but posted about it as you have. A BF member (scooper) PM'd me that he had a frame with the same crack that he had repaired no-problem. Thanks again BF, get it fixed and ride!

Dropout ready to weld:

-Kurt

before:


after:

easy sauce.

One more bike saved by BF knowledge. I think we should try to keep this start-up social-networking knowledge base going. Who knows, it actually may catch-on.

Here's mine, we'll see how it comes out.

$12 worth of welding at Armitage Welding:



The welder did a nice job grinding it close but I got it back to exact specs:



Threw some tractor/Implement black rattlecan at it:



Happy endings.

Good as new!

-Kurt

Paul Sadoff, Rock Lobster Cycles, Santa Cruz preformed this repair. I can't recommend him enough. He got my Miyata project back on track. Thanks Paul!

Looks nice. Isn't that a cast DO? Looks like a much trickier weld but it seems it came out fine.

I really like this job. Doesn't just repair, but plausibly prevents from happening again.

Here's mine. The crack was discovered by Dr. Deltron when he was stripping the frame preparing for new paint. He recommended Paul Sadoff (Rock Lobster) in Santa Cruz for the repair. Paul did a great job.

Interesting to see that it's a Suntour RDO. I guess it's true that Suntour DOs have a tendency to crack. I've seen many other cases of cracking with Suntour's RDO in the net already in the past few years. At least it's the only real dud product to have come out from the company. Maybe their design just had too big a cutout and does not have enough material around it to stand up to normal stresses, or could it be bad steel? Simplex RDOs look so much more robust in comparison.

Chombi

I didn't know they had such a bad rep, but I wouldn't blame this failure on bad material or design. The bike came with a broken axle and Paul had to realign the rear for me. It obviously had a side impact of some sort. Even if it hadn't, it was over 30 years before it's failure.