My bike broke in half......

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Bike 1.jpg

Bike 2.jpg


......luckily not going at speed or I'd have ended up in hospital, or worse. Had the thing a dozen years more and always felt flexy, so guess it's a classic fatigue crack. Won't be getting this type of folder again, least not in aly. This one is a rebadged Dahon, Tern made similar ones as well. I'm around 13 stone, a bit podgy I admit, but within the weight limit for this type of bike. Anyways, a heads-up to anyone owning similar :sad:
 

MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
51-ev%2B9M4iL._SL1000_.jpg


It'll be fine with a bit of gaffer :okay:
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
Sorry. I'm sure a structural engineer in this field will tell us it was an accident waiting to happen.
Looks like all the stress concentrated in one place.
 

numbnuts

Legendary Member
Drop of superglue and she'll be right ;)
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Any track of failure on the weld?
The bottom left looks darker, but that may just be the photo.
 
We were on hols in Koh Chang when it happened. I take a morning ride a few miles to a posh resort and plonk myself on a sunbed for ten minutes or so. When I got back on the bike and started pedaling, that's when it gave way. Luckily nothing hurt but my pride, and no one saw it, and it was the last day of the hols. Left the bike lying there in disgust whilst Mrs Crank was summoned to rescue me in the car. She took ages getting to me as it was quite early. The resort is exclusive for Russians, and by now a few were up and walking past giving the bike strange looks and wondering what happened. Anyways, I'll strip the bike of all its parts and recycle them onto another project. I've got a Raleigh Twenty here that'll be my new travel bike - over engineered and built to last, they knew how to make a sturdy bike back then that's for sure :smile:

PS - The break looks clean, no track of failure. With steel you get some warning of imminent failure, but aly is different, and then there's carbon:eek:
 

BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
We were on hols in Koh Chang when it happened. I take a morning ride a few miles to a posh resort and plonk myself on a sunbed for ten minutes or so. When I got back on the bike and started pedaling, that's when it gave way. Luckily nothing hurt but my pride, and no one saw it, and it was the last day of the hols. Left the bike lying there in disgust whilst Mrs Crank was summoned to rescue me in the car. She took ages getting to me as it was quite early. The resort is exclusive for Russians, and by now a few were up and walking past giving the bike strange looks and wondering what happened. Anyways, I'll strip the bike of all its parts and recycle them onto another project. I've got a Raleigh Twenty here that'll be my new travel bike - over engineered and built to last, they knew how to make a sturdy bike back then that's for sure :smile:

PS - The break looks clean, no track of failure. With steel you get some warning of imminent failure, but aly is different, and then there's carbon:eek:

First of all, pleased to hear you suffered no injury (except, perhaps, to your pride).

Presumably the bike was transported from UK, in aircraft baggage hold? I am no expert, and, I am not excusing the failure, but, I wonder if significant, and, perhaps, rapid, temperature changes could have contributed to the failure?

Just a thought... ;)
 
Eeek! :ohmy:

It's been a while since I did any metallurgy (I'm a composites gal myself) but am wondering if there was a flaw in the weld right from the get-go if it always felt a bit bendy. It only needs one teeny tiny speck of dirt in there, or one air bubble to initiate a crack in the metal when the structure is under load. And then chuck in the fact that the failure occurred at one of the major stress points. Stress concentrations will always make any flaw worse - anywhere else on the bike and it may well not have broken.

Glad you are undamaged though...
 
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