HELP!!!! eddy merckx frame possibly damaged
 

hey guys i had a question about this frame i just shelled 800 bucks out for on ebay, I need all your frame building experience and advice with steel frames.
At the top tube and bottom tube where they meed the head tube legs there are cracks in the paint showing what appears to be stressing of the frame...is that what these cracks are? please tell me I'm wrong i just built up the entire bike with campy nuovo record and am waiting on new handle bar tape and tires but is this frame still ridable???
thanks a lot guys
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7561728...d6a6aa96812109

I'm pretty sure that means it was flexed. Is there any indication of anything happening on the bottom of those tubes at the head tube?

Put a straight edge on the bottom of the top and down tubes to see if they are bent. Doesn't look like it should fail or anything. Ride it.

no indication at all at the bottom of the tubes, i put a piece of straight wood against the tube top and bottom and they seem straight as an arrow but just the cracking of the paint has me worried of a possible failure in the near future

Steel frame = "no worries." Ride on...

One thing I would add from my mechanic experience checking over bikes is that it's worth checking out the fork. That kind of paint damage is almost always from a front-on collision, and sometimes it's the fork that takes the worst of it. Make sure that it isn't bent back towards the frame and doesn't exhibit buckling.


I agree in this case (pending inspection of the fork), but I wouldn't put "NO worries" out in the wild ;-) Sure, it doesn't fail without warning as often as other materials, but paint damage like that is sometimes the warning you get. Someone brought in a bike recently that had been in a head-on six months back, which they'd chosen to keep riding despite some buckling (it's steel, right?)... and the down-tube separated without warning all the way through. It'd take a lot to make me worry on lower end steel bikes with thick tubing, but due diligence is always a good idea.

That area of he frame will see the most flex in daily use. And, that's a "big" not frame while utilizing o'sized tubes= more flex. If the tubes pass the straightness test and alignment is good, I'd say the paint didn't meet the flexibility requirements.