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I crushed a rock through the downtube on my Trek Remedy last year:
This was through the rubber/plastic belly guard too. I'm done with plastic bikes- they don't last for me. I don't care about weight anymore- just have to get strong.
Funny I've prematurely broke every XC aluminum MTB frame I have ever owned, some multiple times. late 90's I had a Trek aluminum bike first high end level XC bike that came with disk brakes standard, Trek 8900 from 1998. I broke the chain stay on it and on the replacements it 4 times in the year I had it. Trek kept on replacing it using me I guess as the tester of all the chain stay gusset configurations they were going through trying to fix the weakness. Switched to carbon after that. brief stint on a team again running Gary fisher. A 2001 Supercaliber the chain stay bridge on it was much better than the Trek version. Broke that as well however, broke the seat tube cracked apart from the bottom bracket. That was kind of the last year I raced competitively due to back problems. Only frames I haven't broken were some back from the 80's through the mid to late 90's when I was building my own steel frames which I broke a few of still , Didn't break a Titanium Merlin XLM I had for a short while and I have never broken a Carbon frame which were all Trek. During my competitive racing years at a high fitness level I weighed around 180 lbs so I'm not a small guy and based on my experience an aluminum bike was going to have a short life span from a fatigue stand point.
Funny I've prematurely broke every XC aluminum MTB frame I have ever owned, some multiple times. late 90's I had a Trek aluminum bike first high end level XC bike that came with disk brakes standard, Trek 8900 from 1998. I broke the chain stay on it and on the replacements it 4 times in the year I had it. Trek kept on replacing it using me I guess as the tester of all the chain stay gusset configurations they were going through trying to fix the weakness. Switched to carbon after that. brief stint on a team again running Gary fisher. A 2001 Supercaliber the chain stay bridge on it was much better than the Trek version. Broke that as well however, broke the seat tube cracked apart from the bottom bracket. That was kind of the last year I raced competitively due to back problems. Only frames I haven't broken were some back from the 80's through the mid to late 90's when I was building my own steel frames which I broke a few of still , Didn't break a Titanium Merlin XLM I had for a short while and I have never broken a Carbon frame which were all Trek. During my competitive racing years at a high fitness level I weighed around 180 lbs so I'm not a small guy and based on my experience an aluminum bike was going to have a short life span from a fatigue stand point.
Yeah- all bikes will break eventually. However 2017 aluminum bikes have come quite a long way from 2001. Testing, FEA experience etc has made most stuff a lot more reliable since early 2000's.
Those are both pretty simple carbon repair jobs. That kinda impact on an Alu bike wouldn't be repairable.
I don't trust carbon repair- you can't just wrap the outside layers of a frame and magically be back to full strength.
Similar to the reason an insurance company will usually total a car when the crash structure has been compromised. Yeah you could fix it, but what happens if the car gets hit again in the same spot and someone dies? OEM's (both car and bike) do a lot of strength testing on the original structure. Any repairs to those structures is just guesswork.
I don't trust carbon repair- you can't just wrap the outside layers of a frame and magically be back to full strength.
Similar to the reason an insurance company will usually total a car when the crash structure has been compromised. Yeah you could fix it, but what happens if the car gets hit again in the same spot and someone dies? OEM's (both car and bike) do a lot of strength testing on the original structure. Any repairs to those structures is just guesswork.
Proper carbon repair is definitely significantly more involved (and invasive) than just wrapping extra layers on the outside. Cars to bikes isn't really a fair comparison for many reasons; bicycles don't get crash structures built in as they're traveling much slower (generally) and have way less mass. Plus the ratio of passenger/vehicle weights is hugely different. I agree cars with damaged crash structures should be totalled and not repaired, the "fuse" so to speak, is broken.
But when repaired properly --sanding through or removing the delaminated layers, rebuilding the weave structure and properly re-resined-- carbon bicycles can be just as strong again. It may not always be cost effective, but its at least generally possible.
Yea with how many times i bang my MTB around and fall, I will stick to aluminum for the near future. I bought the bike this way 2 years ago but seems like the PO also clipped the downtube on something
Somewhere in an Austin extended-stay hotel, a Stigmata cries, wondering if its owner will ever return.
I'll probably roll from the hotel down to MJ's today on the Stigge, do a little hey-bro-ing on 6th, hit the food trucks, watch the ladies run at Zilker for a moment, climb Bonnell twice, do the 8-mile climb home, and then finish at Jester King brewery with a pizza. Austin is not a bad town, I am absolutely in love with the hills here. I feel it's getting me ready for proper climbing, with a compact, on the Stigmata.
Finally feel like I'm making some bigger strides in regards to my speed and strength on the bike. Just need to keep at it over the winter on the trainer and trails so I don't come back in the Spring a noodle. Been getting a lot more comfortable on the MTB and earning some top 10 spots on segments with 1500, and 2500 people on them. On the road bike, I've gotten my average speed and power up too. Did an FTP test in January that said 215w using the ZWIFT calculator. Did another FTP test about a month ago using a stages crank arm and that showed me 236w. However, I am going to re-try this (possibly outside) since I was able to average 241w for over an hour on the roads which is more than my FTP, and yesterday I rode 50mi 3000ft with friends and averaged 17.8mph and 211w for nearly 3 hours.
And then I go on Emilio's strava and get knocked back to reality of how just averagely quick I am. I enjoy following your adventures and seeing those climbs from the circle of doom just about made my legs cramp LOL
Finally feel like I'm making some bigger strides in regards to my speed and strength on the bike. Just need to keep at it over the winter on the trainer and trails so I don't come back in the Spring a noodle. Been getting a lot more comfortable on the MTB and earning some top 10 spots on segments with 1500, and 2500 people on them. On the road bike, I've gotten my average speed and power up too. Did an FTP test in January that said 215w using the ZWIFT calculator. Did another FTP test about a month ago using a stages crank arm and that showed me 236w. However, I am going to re-try this (possibly outside) since I was able to average 241w for over an hour on the roads which is more than my FTP, and yesterday I rode 50mi 3000ft with friends and averaged 17.8mph and 211w for nearly 3 hours.
And then I go on Emilio's strava and get knocked back to reality of how just averagely quick I am. I enjoy following your adventures and seeing those climbs from the circle of doom just about made my legs cramp LOL
I became so ******* fat since July that I now have to inject insulin and can't even see my dick without a mirror.
Do not judge your fitness from Emilio's as that is immortal, mythology type fitness.
Time for the annual death march... Got 9 starters this year, 8 finished. It was under 30f for about 9 of the 12 hours, low of 17 (garmin rode in my pocket for a lot of the ride hence the temp graph). Couldn't make it to the top of Pikes' peak because it was too cold up there (and we were tired). Route was interesting- maybe 40-45 miles on real trail.
10-12-2017, 06:57 PM
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