gbb said:
Mickle, surely you are best placed to know how likely a roadbike frame failure is. Do you see many with modern bikes. Is it due to 'abuse' or manufacturing weaknesses. I assume you must get feedback from manufacturers / importers.
Does anyone know how often modern roadbike frames fail ?
Actually, with the migration away from steel to Alu and carbon frame failures have become much less common (it's dead easy to overheat a steel joint and weaken the tube during the manufacturing process). I think the move to more exotic materials has forced quality assurance managers to raise their game. The bottom line is; unless a bike has been crashed or very badly abused any failure
must be a result of poor design or manufacture (at least while it's still covered by warranty!). The never-ending quest for lighter and lighter frames has caused some problems over the years, one famous US brand had frame returns from failures at 20% (!!!) ten years ago. It's a wonder they survived, well they very nearly didn't survive but their appalling failure rate was never officially mentioned as one of the reasons. Clearly their ability to make light frames couldn't keep pace with their ability to design them.
I've ridden a 1937 lightweight road frame over some pretty rugged terrain with no worries about it's ability to survive. Mashed a wheel up pretty badly too.