How many people here have experienced a frame failure, excepting crashes? What are the details?
What was the nature of the failure, and how did you discover it? What factors contributed to it? What frame material? How old, how many miles on it? Exotic or standard frame design? Did it occur under use, or abuse? Was the frame super light? Do you have legs like the hulk? Do you ride on really bad roads? Do you put your top tube in a vise to work on your bike? Etc and so on. . .
We see frames fail about ever 3-4 days. They are typically the same brands that fail conistently. It would be inappropriate to say which frames we see fail, but I can tell that the majority of the popular brands we discuss on this forum are NOT among them.
A lot of companies use you guys- the consumers- for test pilots. With so called “custom geometry” bikes the very first person to test fly the bike is- guess who- you. Basically, you just funded a research project.
You guys can critizsize him if you want, but Gerard Vroomen of Cervelo along with Phil White are two guys who have never put untested equipment in the hands of consumers. Their designs are always well conceived, tested and that is why we have never seen one- not even one single one- break (that and good materials). That is very responsible on their part.
I know that any frame can- and has- broken. But there are some out there that break with alarming regularity.
One popular Italian brand provided me with a test bike which I rode for three months. It broke. I returned it to them. In the spirit of “If you can’t say something good about something don’t say anything” I actually never ran the review. Then they sent me a $250 invoice for the repair of the broken frame- broken under normal riding conditions.
Talk about insult to injury. I should run the review and send them a printout of it with my check.
Frames fail all the time. Some more than others. The best companies have very few failures.
Tom, I hope my Felt DA 700 I bought from you is not one of the frames that break 
Actually I love the bike and time time you took to fit me properly on the bike.
We have never had a Felt frame fail, even in collisions with cars (vans) and serious crashes.
I figured you havn’t had any problems, actually this morning after out ride the guys are looking at the welds and saying how nice they were. One guy owns a metal spinning plant and was talking about how hard it is to get a quality weld like the Felt has.
My old coach. She was ranked in the top 100 (maybe even 50) in the world (ITU) and was looking forward to the 2000 Olympics.
She had a Trek sponsorship and they gave her the new Y-Frame made from Carbon. The fork split right down the middle when she was on a descend going 50+kph. I don’t remember what she broke but it was a lot. She can’t even ride a bike now because of trauma.
I think they still have a legal battle going on, even after a few years.
happened to me: bought the bike 2nd hand, rode it for a bit over a year and one day while cleaning it I discovered a 1in hairline crack at the solder joint between the bottom tube and the headset: after this I never trusted going outdoors on the bike again and just relegated it to trainer duties. Not sure what factors might’ve contributed, I treat my bikes very well but I also know that a few roads I train on are very rough (chipseal etc., no potholes though) which might’ve caused more stress on the weld.
I think the frame is about 7-8 years old, alu frame, ‘polished/ground’ solder joints (meaning, the joint is smooth, as if it was only 1 piece of alu, can’t see the weld at all), standard road geometry. Brand is DeVinci, I never even tried to contact them about warranty replacement because according to their site their frame warranties are only 5 years and DO NOT transfer if you sell your bike (which I think is ridiculous, why should only the original owner have a right to a warranty?).
I now have a 2002 p2k (2nd hand again, sure hope that Cervelo’s warranty transfers 
) and sure hope this frame will last me a loooong time!
Your post got me wondering. Can the person who bought the bike second hand get the original buyer (since some warranties are for a lifetime of the original owner) to send the frame back for replacement? Might have a hard time getting the guy to do it…but it might be worth a shot.
In the late 80’s I had a Schwinn frame break where the down tube meets the head tube.The bike was called Aluminum 364.I bought it new and owned it for about 2 years.Back then all I rode was centuries and diease rides.I never rode it hard.Also rode it to work 2-4 times aweek.My average speed was 18 MPH for most rides.I started down a small hill and the front end starts shimming all over the place.I stopped to check the wheel bearing cups on the front wheel.They were tight.As I got back on the bike I noticed the downtube looked funny.There was a big scratch at the head tube.Upon further examination the weld at the head tube/ downtube junction had broke clean through.I walked to a gas station and called home for a ride.Took the bike to the LBS.They said an adjuster from Schwinn had to look at the bike.If he deemed the break the fault of Schwinn,I would get a new frame.If he thought it was from a crash or mistreatment I would get zip.He said it looked like the weld failed and OKed a new frame.For 60 bucks(to switch over components) I got a new bike!!!
well, in that specific case the bike was at least 3rd hand so I really couldn’t track down the original owner: for the p2k OTOH I was given the original receipt (bought at my same lbs) so if I needed to use the warranty (fingers crossed that won’t be the case) it should be easier.
I haven’t had any fail since the 80’s, but back then the tally was 1 trek aluminum cracked at the seat cluster on the first ride, 2 Alan carbonio all separated at the seat tube/BB aluminum lug, 2 TVT carbon same failure as the Alan, 2 Look also same as Alan. All the carbon aluminum ones failed within 3-6 months due to galvanic corrosion and fortunately because of where they failed there were no catastrophic consequences. I broke many parts during that period as well since I was a weight weenie and light parts in general were MUCH worse than they are now.
I think as long as you stay away from frames that are significantly lighter than similarly constructed frames you will eliminate a lot of failures. If it was that easy everyone would be doing it. Naturally due to my past problems I also have a big problem with frames made from dissimilar materials - like all the aluminum frames with carbon stays out there now.
" Gerard Vroomen of Cervelo along with Phil White are two guys who have never put untested equipment in the hands of consumers"
There is a certain law of averages that there must surely be an occasional Cervelo frame failure somewhere. But it sure is confidence inspiring to know that these two guys designing or bikes are aerospace engineers.
I have had two frames fail.
My first failure was a Schwinn Traveler, and old True Temper frame. It failed at the bottom bracket and seat tube junction. It was older (about six years old at the time). I felt a LOT of flex in the BB area. I then stepped down on the crank and heard it go. It was a clean break at the lug junction, though I had found that the frame had steel cancer (rust).
I also had an unnamed frame fail at the head tube/ downtube junction. I had put about 24,000 miles on this frame. I had horrendous shimmy on a descent. Something told me to look at the bike. I took off my Carnacs, walked to a pay phone, and called for a ride home.
We have a brand in Australia called Avanti (NZ bike) they are not all that cheap ($3k AUS) and my friend has cracked 6 frames in 4 years. And his is not the only one. They just keep replacing them without changing the design. I know a few guys that have cracked specialized frames, the bike shop won;t stock either anymore.
I had a Giant TCR 1 fail in 2002. The head tube separated from the top tube, and then mostly from the downtube… resulting in a bad crash. After looking at the cross section of the tubing, I can’t believe how they could make a bike out of such thin-walled aluminum tubing… crazy. Anyway, Giant offered to sell me a TCR2 frame for 25% off. Thanks but no thanks. I’ll never buy a Giant again. I’m making a wind chime out of the old frame.
I had a Trek OCLV crack. Started hearing a terrible noise, kind of a creek when I pedaled. The carbon fiber around the bottom bracket fractured. But Trek sent me a brand new USPS frame. Very cool. Maybe a collectors item if they DC the contract??
I’ve had a couple frames fail.
Bianchi: Steel EL/OS broken drive side chainstay, about 1 year old, I noticed the crack unloading the bike before the race, I finished the race and the crack had propogated nearly all the way around the tube at the BB shell.
Litespeed Ultimate: Ti seat tube broke nearly all the way around the BB shell, also cracked up the “cut out” on the older design. About 10,000 miles on it, 8 months old. Cleaning the drivetrain uncovered the cracks
Vitus 787: Vitus cross bike broke the downtube/headtube junction on the second ride just cruising on a MTB path. Owners manual included instruction on how to “refit the tubes” with commecial epoxy. I passed on the repair.
Orbea XLR8R: Broken BB shell/Chainstay interface. I’ve seen lots of these fail before mine did and realized it was only a matter of time. I think the policy at Orbea USA is to “reglue” the failure.
I’ve killed off a bunch of stuff in crashes including a couple frames. Typically in a crash however, all bets (and warranties) are off: Coppi Glaxay, Mongoose IBOC Pro, Bianchi Specialisima SLX?, Trek OCLV, Colnago Dream Cross, Colnago Carbitubo, Specialized M2, Giant TCR 0.
I’m a clysedale (now) and ride in Michigan where the roads are nearly impassable at times. To stay away from traffic, I like to ride on the dirt roads way out in the middle of no where.
I feel very lucky to have been able to keep the crashes limited to bike failures. I’ve yet to break and collar bones, hips, hands, etc from crashing.
-SD
**"We see frames fail about ever 3-4 days. They are typically the same brands that fail consistently. It would be inappropriate to say which frames we see fail, but I can tell that the majority of the popular brands we discuss on this forum are NOT among them**."
Tom, WHY would it be inappropriate to say which frames you see fail consistently? Agreed that if a company makes fantastic frames has a bad one that breaks and this happens very, very rarely, it would not be very fair to the maker to blow that rarity out of proportion.
But if a company has frame failures happen frequently and you see this, why in the world would you NOT want to be honest and open about this info? (If you see a bad movie, do you keep it to yourself to be considerate to the distributor or movie studio??) I work for an airline and have seen downright frightening practices (safety and security) at many carriers. I don’t keep these secret from people who are interested because of my enormous consideration for airline companys’ profits. Truth always wins.
It would be refreshing to get a glimpse of what you see and experience. You have told us (and have given names) of companies that can’t seem to ship on time or supply their retailers with the quantity of product that was promised. But if a company potentially puts its customers at greater risk for injury, you will hide this info??? It is not a stretch to say that at some point these company’s frames will likely fail while being ridden, possibly with disasterous or even fatal consequences.
Why not be honest here?
Tom, WHY would it be inappropriate to say which frames you see fail consistently?
As everyone will tell you, I do not speak for Tom D. However, I just want to make it clear that I am not asking for specific bikes or brands that are “likely” to experience frame failure. I’m asking for more general information, in large part because of the study posted by Gerard the other day in which certain aluminum frames demonstrated a surprising (to me) amount of durability. I had always assumed that steel frames were inherently more durable than aluminum frames, and that evidently is not so.
Asking Tom D, who’s in the bike business, to single out specific makers as producers of failure prone frames is putting him in an awkward and unfair position, if you ask me. It should be fairly clear which bike manufacturers/distributers get Tom’s seal of approval by looking at the line he carries.
"Asking Tom D, who’s in the bike business, to single out specific makers as producers of failure prone frames is putting him in an awkward and unfair position, if you ask me."
Interesting that you reply to this post but Tom does not. We are not talking about poor finish or poor customer service here–we are talking about safety! To me, that is important. I should write a letter to the FAA to, from this point on, hide the company identities of all airline accidents, even when company procedures played a big role in the cause.
But not to focus here on Tom specifically, but more on professionals and businesspeople (in any profession) in general, so you are saying that avoiding “awkward positions” (and protecting the bottom line) is MORE important for a professional than for him to have the courage to step out of line in to protect the life and health of his clients/customers/patients/passengers/etc. ?
Wow!! That is something I find amazing to hear. I sure do not agree with that. I would FAR more readily lose my job or income than to know that my actions (in this case, keeping information secret that probably should not be) made someone get their face re-arranged on pavement or, worse, lose their life by a product/company/system/etc. failure or negligence.
And I personally have done this–I have put my job on the line more than once in the past, by refusing to risk the lives of my passengers for the sake my employer’s convenience. Each time I was threatened with termination. Others I know WERE terminated. But, I think the sleep is a little better at night, at least having the guts to TRY to do what is right.