Is this a crack in my frame?

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Holio cornolio

Senior Member
Location
Essex
So... During a ride the other weekend I noticed a very occasional creak coming from the bottom bracket of my fratello. My chainset is campy ultratorque so when I got home I gave it a little crank with a torque wrench to about 45-50nm roughly. Did the dun run at the weekend and the creak was still there. Albeit slightly reduced. I had a quick look around the BB area and saw this tiny hairline mark in the paint. I am now paranoid that it's a crack. It's due a strip down and rebuild and I almost certainly need new bearings for the crankset and the pedals need a strip and regrease. The creak could be coming from multiple places, but it that's an actual crack what are the chances of it being repairable?
 

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vickster

Legendary Member
So... During a ride the other weekend I noticed a very occasional creak coming from the bottom bracket of my fratello. My chainset is campy ultratorque so when I got home I gave it a little crank with a torque wrench to about 45-50nm roughly. Did the dun run at the weekend and the creak was still there. Albeit slightly reduced. I had a quick look around the BB area and saw this tiny hairline mark in the paint. I am now paranoid that it's a crack. It's due a strip down and rebuild and I almost certainly need new bearings for the crankset and the pedals need a strip and regrease. The creak could be coming from multiple places, but it that's an actual crack what are the chances of it being repairable?

I'd take it to Condor and get them to check it over thoroughly
 
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Holio cornolio

Holio cornolio

Senior Member
Location
Essex
Sort the BB out first before panicking. Could easily be a paint crack. Not easy to see on the picture

Cheers. It's not easy to see in real life. But it's not hair and it's not dirt and it sprouts from right in crook of the BB. The frame is 10 years old now and could probably do with a spruce up. I had been toying with the idea of a repaint. Will do my strip and rebuild and BB bearings and try again.
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
Certainly could be a crack but I don't know if it would be enough to produce what you describe, so the two might not be related. Is the Ultratorque pressfit or threaded? Looks like threaded, in which case shouldn't lead to creaking if that small.
Your main concern is to identify if it's a crack or not. As Vicky suggests best to get it into Condor for their appraisal. I see you're in Essex so should be reasonably easy. Well out of warranty I imagine. Be interesting to see how Condor will treat you if it proves to be. Let us know.
 
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Holio cornolio

Holio cornolio

Senior Member
Location
Essex
@cyclops , and everyone else, thanks for the replies. Yes it's a threaded BB. New bearings have eradicated the creak for now which was a slight surprise, because having stripped it down, the bearings seemed, well. I won't say fine, but definitely not horrible. Just goes to show, it doesn't take much bearing play to create a BB creak. I've given the frame a more thorough check and clean around the BB and I think (hope) it's the paint. The crack doesn't quite extend to the edge of the weld and it's very slight. The paint is now getting a bit tired and showing its 10 years, and I'm at the point where it has sufficient sentimental value (and frankly is so incredibly comfortable) that it will likely be new paint before a new frame...
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
expanding the photo, is it the dark hairline headed from the BB towards the chainring bolt (crack is around 45 degrees)
I've had a frame crack around the BB and it followed the weld exactly. If that's the 'crack' I'm looking at, I dont see why it would spread up the tube like that tbh.
I have a mark in my CF top tube, its looked like a crack ever since I saw it, but its just a scratch.
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
That's a difficult one.. if it's "only" the paint the material beneth has to be moving sufficiently to cause paint damage - so it's suggestive of a potential issue further down the line. In addition it seems to start at a weld, which is a classic crack initiation point due to the latent stresses generated by shrinkage during cooling.

If it is a crack the creaking comes from the opposite sides moving across each other as the frame is cyclicly loaded during pedalling. This generates a black dust as the ally is abraded away and oxidises (which doesn't seem overly present in the pic).

If it starts creaking again try running a bead of oil over the line along its length; this will likely be drawn into the crack and temporarily lubricate it - stopping the creaking (and indeed identifying the defect as a crack). If the frame is cracked you'd likely see some of the black debris being ejected out of the crack with the oil and diffusing into what's left on the surface.

For reference here's the thread on my OCR which was eventually written off due to a crack at the top tube / seatpost tube junction.

Fingers' crossed!
 
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My research lead me to be quoted around £250 for a full structural repair. And around £100 for a paint only repair.

Be aware though that I was advised it was non structural - but the paint cracked again very shortly after the repair.

In the end I cut my (substantiall) losses and brought a new frame.
 

IrishAl

** Full Time Pro **
Location
N.Ireland
hi, you could buy yourself a dye penetrant (crack detection) kit - basically two tins of spray - one a dye that you spray over the area to be tests - the dye will be absorbed into any holes/cracks; you then wipe the dye off the surface and then spray with the second spray which is usually like a white powder. Any dye will bleed out of any cracks and show up against the white powder. If it’s just a hairline crack in the paint then there won’t be much dye to bleed out. If it’s a crack into the frame then there’ll be more dye and therefore more of a stain on the white powder.

I spotted what looked crack in the seat stay of my bike a few years back - unsure of the cause but granted I had crashed a number of times in races so guessed that was the cause. Anyways I tested as described above and I’ve attached a photo. The crack was about 2cm long. In the end I did a carbon fibre / epoxy repair at home and had the bike resprayed at a car body shop and it’s still going strong.

B62132E6-44F7-409B-B443-0930DAC528DF.jpeg
 
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november4

Well-Known Member
Given everything, peace of mind by masking off area and remove paint around suspect crack; if OK can patch up etc
 
Location
Wirral
Are we to assume the real crack is 7 to 1 o'clock on the (horizontal) downtube in the photo, and the 'hairline cracks' are actually just scratches, and are those all over the tubes join area?
 
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