Just riding along...

[smilingcat]

It's all in the title. Not a holly bush for kilometres. Was out with a couple of mates for a regular weekly after-work blat around a very easy, completely non-technical loop. Felt the saddle slip and thought perhaps I hadn't done the seat post collar up tightly enough. Felt it slip again with a definite backward tilt this time and figured it must be the saddle rail clamp instead. Got off and scratched my head when I saw that both were secure. Then I saw the big crack and just gawped for a while. I guess it's a long-term fatigue thing that has resulted in catastrophic failure. Thank goodness for the lifetime frame warrantee.

You're so non-chalant about the whole affair. I would have freaked...

The bike is an aluminum frame. And they do have to temper them to get it strong; but when welded, they lose their temper and makes them weak. That is what I was reading about 6005? aluminum. It can be retempered in welded area so perhaps the frame builder didn't adequately retemper the area.

Anyway, I'm really glad you didn't get hurt. I hope you didn't ride like that back to your house or your car.

Smilingcat

[RoadRaven]

Whoa, Diva... scary!
I know its repetitive, but so glad this didn't happen while you were trying out some wylde move!

You say long-tewrm fatigue - so how long have you had the bike... or perhaps more relevantly approx how many hours or miles has it done...?

[DirtDiva]

Me too! Not that I really do wylde moves (I'm all talk ), but I certainly ride much more challenging terrain in much more isolated places at times.

I've had the bike since July 2005. Goodness knows how may hours of use it's had. A reasonable amount, but nothing over the top. Plus, it's always been treated like the kind of bike it is - a cross country hardtail - not a huck machine. Personally, I think the stock seatpost probably was at fault - barely long enough for a frame of that shape (30cm, perhaps less) and never quite as tight-fitting as it ought to have been. But then again, I know nothing about metal engineering and such.

Anyway, the distributor told me to take it into a local dealer for them to eyeball it and such, so that's where it's at at the moment.