Hi everybody

I was on a crash on my CAAD 10. After closer inspection the drive side seat stay got dented. Should I replace the frame?



Thanks for the help.

I'd take it to a shop and ask their opinion.

Looks fine to me. Ride on.

I Think I'd ask everybody.... till someone told me it could just be touched up with nail polish. What a bummer.

And.... there you go.

Ruined. Send it to me .... if it's a 56 cm

It looks almost like you scraped the paint off judging from your picture. I don't really see a dent. I don't see any sort of depression.

I would just ride it and keep an eye on it, because that's near the welds and it might be in the heat affected zone. These zones are generally a bit weaker than the non heat affected zones.

Just be glad that you didn't hit the top tube. That part is supposedly very fragile - fragile enough to be dented by a knee while pedaling. Some people report they can feel the top tube flex when squeezing it.

I wouldn't replace it unless someone else was paying for it. I don't think a dent in that location would weaken anything as I believe the force would be transmitting along the axis of the tube. I would be more concerned if there was a bending moment on that tube but I don't think there would be under normal or even hard riding.

I'd keep riding it and just keep an eye on it to see if it changes at all.

What I see is a tube that was slightly compressed and the paint flaked away from the compressed point. The dent, if I'm seeing it correctly, is a flattened area less than the tube diameter in length and of a depth that hardly changes the overall structure of the area.

OP, I didn't say why I think you're okay. It wasn't a flip comment. I just don't see how your dent can possibly impact durability in the short or long term. It may be in a heat treated region of the tube set but it a region that is buttressed by the juncture of four tubes and that tends to strengthen/support, not weaken, the overall structural properties of the metal in that area. Said another way, if you want to split a log, hit it where the grain is clean, not in a region blooming with knots. There's no way your frame is going to split through that tangle of knots.

Rub some dirt on it and you'll be fine...

It's fine - for now.

I don't really see a dent in the pictures, just paint scratched off. But if there is indeed a dent, just keep an eye on it. Aluminum does not like to be dented, and eventually, the stress of riding will cause it to crack. It may happen tomorrow or it may happen in five years. It really depends on how big the dent is, where it is and how much you torque the frame. The last aluminum frame I dented lasted about six more weeks before it cracked.

Once it cracks, you will need to replace the frame. But until then, you are fine.

A really nice thing about aluminum is that it fails slowly. You will see the crack form first. It's not going to suddenly crack and break off.

I dented my CAAD10 as well (top tube) and rode it for another 2k miles with no problems. I ended up selling it because I got tired of looking at it.

You'll be fine. Just ride.

Hi All,

I want to thank you guys for your help. I took the bike to the LBS and they recommended to keep riding until a crack form and then do a crash replacement frame. I think I will do that. Hopefully it will last me a whi

A dent just means you can race criteriums now.

now you don't have to worry about the first scratch anymore.

Is it a volvo that you drive?

It does? Try googling broken handlebar stories. Cracks in aluminum are a sign of imminent failure. Sometimes we don't notice the cracks and then when the part fails, we say it failed "suddenly."

Still, I wouldn't worry too much about that "dent" to the seat stay because I can't see it and even if one seat stay completely goes, you still have another seat stay, top tube, and downtube supporting the seat tube.

A handlebar - once that goes - not much is left!

Not creased; very shallow dent = will be fine.

+ 1 ride on.