I wanted to go for a ride, so I borrowed my brother's bike because mine is in repair. I go riding, hum-tee-dum-tee, enjoying the landscape, watch for pretty women, hum-tee-dum-tee-da, bike is doing fine. I take some minor hills, shift a little, the usual etc. Nothing big. No high curbs or potholes or other extraordinary things. So, I'm riding for like 45 minutes, speeding it up on a stretched lane, I see the traffic light ahead of me turn red, I slow down, everything is fine. I wait for the light, it turns green, I step on the pedals and noticed they feel a little strange. I look down, just to discover that the BOTTOM BRACKET IS BEND! And not just a little, but bigtime! So I steer towards the sidewalk and stop, get off the bike and I take a look at it. SEVERE CRACK IN THE FRAME!!! OH NO! Around the bottom bracket area, the frame is bend and has a long, curly crack in it! It looks like it exploded or something! Luckily, home wasn't far so I walked home. Now, the bad part is that it's my brother's bike and he has always been so enthusiastic about it. It's an older rigid MTB with steel frame, Shimano GS 200, etc. Nothing particular but it has sentimental value to him. He always raves about it, saying it's so fast (which it kind off is) and aerodynamic. On one hand, I feel bad that the frame snapped while I was riding it, on the other hand (and this may be a little selfish) I don't think I'm responsible or anything because it was already an old bike with an unknown history (2nd or 3th hand) and the frame may have reach the end of it's lifespan (I really don't see any other explanation for it). I don't really have a clue on why the frame broke (other then what I just mentioned). Anyone? Anyway, we'll probably have to get him a new bike as I don't think it can be repaired...

Put it back where you found it, but lay it on its side and pretend that it just fell on the floor overnight and snapped.
Or put it right behind the door so the next time he goes to get the bike, he'll open the door and knock it over and think he broke it.

Sounds like it was inevitable. Consider yourself (and your brother) lucky it went when you were at a light, not doing 30 down a huge hill :O

Check for rust around the BB. Chances are that's what caused the frame to fail. 200GS components point to it being at least a 14 year old bike.

Slvoid, that's nasty.

Jonny, that is exactly what I was thinking. But how do I explain it to my brother?

Khuon, I checked and there is no (visible) rust. Btw, those 200GS shifters and derailleurs worked pretty good for a system so old. How high stood they in the Shimano component ladder (back then)?

Anyway, I'm now in the process of buying a new MTB for my brother. I've decided it will be a bike that is around the 300 Euro. But I'll start a new thread on that on the MTB forum.

200GS was in the group that was bottom of the line... err... I mean entry-level at the time. I believe that there was only one step below 200GS... the 100GS. I remember my brother buying a 1990 Specialized HardRock that came with 200GS. It was a pretty decent group actually and to be honest, I feel that it was a comparatively better low-end group than today's low-end groups. In today's pecking order, it would probably stand in around the Altus to Acera position.

Yikes Speeder that sucks. The low end stuff for shimaNO at that time would have been Tourney, followed by SIS.

Ahh yeah. I hadn't even considered the Tourney and SIS or Nexus groups at the time as Shimano didn't even give them an M designation. Shimano also snuck in variations on some of their MTB groups to turn them into "comfort" groups (CX).

Early 1990s (1990-1992) Shimano lineup

• SIS = ????
• Nexus = E700
• Tourney = TY20, TY70, TY70-S (youth)
• 100GS = M100
• 200GS = M200
• Exage 200CX = C200
• Exage 500CX = C500
• Exage 300LX = M300
• Exage 400LX = M400
• Exage 500LX = M500
• Deore LX = M550
• Deore DX = M650
• Deore XT = M735
• XTR = M900

Ahhh - I remember SIS. My first indexed gearing system was SIS and I thought it was magic! It was compared to non-indexed gearing on the down-tube!

Sp@eder - I would point out as others have said that it was inevitable and suggest that you two have a "funeral" for the bike ;-)

Khuon, you can study all you want, but that will never be a question for final Jeopardy.

Sp@ederFrom what you've said, I would think there's little he could hold you responsible for, but it still sucks. Depending on the exact circumstances, I'd might offer to pay a small portion of the replacement
cost. Even though you were on it at the time, he still got a huge majority of the use out of the frame. If he absolves you of responsibility, then you still owe him a beer.

Oops I forgot to check back here. I was so busy with looking for a new bike. Thanks for the advice and sympathy guys. I'm going to strip the bike of it's useful components and maybe have some sort of ceremony for the frame. I bought my brother a new bike, you can read more about it in this thread (trying not to cross-post). Thanks again.