what was that? is that all there is? who is this? this is it.

Stumbled upon this Gary Fisher on Friday. It got my attention because I wanted the thumb shifters and the brake levers for another bike. When I started cutting cables and removing parts I took a look at that hose clamp holding the downtube together and wondered how long this person rode like that and really wondered how they blew out a tube like that. This is not some dainty frame. Those oversized tubes are beyond beefy and strong like ox (see similar cross-section in Exhibit A below) The big fat inch & a quarter headset headtube steertube stem are all fun to look at in an incompatible historic way and this is not some hairline crack it’s a 3.5 inch long flap like an access panel into the frame.

All this reminds me that bikes are cool and even when they’re tweaked bent rusty squeaky or on the edge of catastrophic failure they’re still more efficient than walking.

Exhibit A

4 Comments

Holy Crap! (and a hite rite in the background to boot)

right on. On a 30.6 post with an integrated pump too.

Always interesting to see how different frames fail. Looks like the crack started at the rivet that holds the housing stops on. Then spread as a result of the cyclic stresses at the HT/DT joint. Probably the most highly stressed area of the whole frame.

I think you're right. The bombproof oversized tube got a little stress riser rivet in just the right place

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