Bonded Frames
 

Bonded Frames. My old Trek 1200 is a bonded frame. Whats all this talk about these frames pulling apart. Same with Trek's Carbon bikes from the same time period (5800).
I had a gentlemen tell me he was a rep in the late 80's, and saw how these bikes were made and said they were extremely well built. Trek used aircraft glue to bond the frame.
Just curious since I heard talk of this well before I acquired the Trek over two years ago. And the frame material 6061 Aluminum is still used on bikes today.

'Screwed And Glued' AlAns Could be repaired at the factory in Italy.

the "lugs" are where fatigue showed up, as cracks .

AlAn also made Tre-Tubi Carbon Frames

Sure are a lot of people riding these bikes. And they are 30 now. Anyway......

I worked at a Trek dealership before and during the aluminum frame era; never heard of an aluminum Trek coming apart.

A few years after the aluminum frame had been introduced, I asked our Trek rep what effect the aluminum bikes had had on their business. He said that as their aluminum bikes sales had gone up and steel bike sales had gone down, frame warranty claims had gone way down.

IOW, you probably don't have to worry much about that frame.

Rode a '88 Trek 1000 for 40K miles urban commuting before I got another bike and passed it on. As far as I know it's still on the road. I did have the rear Matrix wheel start cracking at the spoke eyelets.

Somebody posted Wolber Rims on a Centurion that did the same thing. Had a Pic of it posted.

I think the doom and gloom crowd have thrown this info around.

I had one guy on a nice older Surly road Bike (Not as nice as he thought it was) swear the frame was welded.
I made the mistake of initiating a conversation with this person. :rolleyes:

I posted a similar question on these forums a while back asking if the bonded frames were reliable, and the answers I got from many posters made me think they are. In fact I wouldn't hesitate to buy one now if I ran into the right deal in my size.

My main ride is a Miyata I've ridden about 25k miles in the last 24 years. Aluminum tubes glued in Cr-Mo lugs with Cr-Mo fork and rear triangle. No problems.

Sounds like the Miyata 721 I bought cheap in pristine condition. It could be my primary bike if need be. It's nice.

I had a 1400 Aluminum. I rode it when I was heavy (about 250 pounds). To be honest I also worried a little about the durability of a bonded bicycle. But it seemed to hold up fine... and I never heard or read of any problems with the bonded Treks.

I ride with a guy who has two carbon tubes/aluminum lug bonded bikes. Well, he had two, but now only has one. The one bike creaked like crazy every time he stood up on the pedals until on one ride the bottom bracket fell apart. We just finished descending a 1.5 mile hill hitting speeds +/- 50 mph. It was amazing that when the frame gave it up the front derailleur cable held the bottom bracket together so that the bike didn't split into tow pieces.

There you go! Nothing to worry about. The derailleur cables will keep the bike together.