I was cleaning my bike in the sunshine (never really cleaned it in such bright light before, I’m usually in my garage) and I noticed a VERY, VERY, VERY thin (like BARELY visible in full sunlight) 1/2in long crack on the right side of the part of the frame the stem goes in (around the soldering point of the bottom angled tube and the short vertical tube the top tube is attached on as well).
Now, the crack could’ve been there for a long time, the tube is about twice as thick as the hairline crack is long, and the crack is only on one side (the rest of the frame is ok, I looked at it for quite a bit after I discovered this) but my trust level in it is pretty much gone as I keep thinking ‘what if it breaks off when I’m on a downhill? or while I’m in heavy traffic?’
It’s good in any case I found out about this today as I was planning to upgrade the gruppo to campy chorus within a week or two so if I have to get a new bike I’d rather find out about it now rather than later: I guess now I’ll have to figure out if I should go road/tri geometry, which gruppo etc. etc. etc. (I really like campy chorus triple, but there’s no way I can get a p2k with it for example, the shop that sells campy doesn’t sell cervelo (the soloist is nice))
decisions, decisions, I guess rather than having a nice ride outdoors I’ll have to get out the trainer once again (and keep it out for a while it seems, as I guess my bike will be trainer-only from now on)…
Realize that there could be a crack in the paint/finish and this is what your are noticing as opposed to a crack in the frame. Have your LBS inspect it for a professional opinion. Its definitely worth it in this case.
I had the same dilemma two years ago. Cleaning my bike in bright sunshine, rather than the usual artificial light, I noticed the smallest of hairline cracks in my frame. This was, I may note, the last clean of my bike prior to packing my bike and going to Kona for the IM. The LBS was unsure, and the manufacturer rep. saud it was a ‘crack in the fill’ of the weld. So I went and raced, and the bike held up. On my return, I had teh bike thoroughly checked out by the rep., and sure enough it was cracked good and plenty. My advice, be super suspicious of any crack, and clean your bike in the sunlight if you can!
I thought the crack was in the paint at first, since my bike is already pretty scratched up (the guy who had it before me had rain fenders on and they took down the paint where they were) I stripped the paint where the crack is and sure enough the aluminum under the paint job is cracked exactly the same way
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Don’t ride the bike- you’ll be sorry if you do. I have had two cracked frames- one that cracked in a crash, one that CAUSED the crash. It ain’t fun.
This is one of the reasons why I had written the bike cleaning article that appeared on slowtwitch last year. Cleaning the bike encourages you to not only take good care of it, but it also makes certain you don’t have cracks in the frame or any components.
it’s an aluminum devinci frame (at least 6 years old, possibly more). I was already going to change the gruppo and possibly the pedals so I’m just going to go ahead and get a complete new bike and relegate my current ride to trainer duties. I’m currently leaning very hard towards a custom cramerotti bike (w/ campy chorus 10), we’ll see how much that’d set me back: it feels soooo strange thinking about spending this much $$$ on a bike, heck, a few years ago I thought my cousin (in Italy) was crazy for spending 2 grand on his first road bike (he since got a custom carbon ride that set him back much more than that, lol) and now here I am…
I thought the crack was in the paint at first, since my bike is already pretty scratched up (the guy who had it before me had rain fenders on and they took down the paint where they were) I stripped the paint where the crack is and sure enough the aluminum under the paint job is cracked exactly the same way
