too many bagels for breakfast

[the cycling pikey]

I've broken another bike frame, a few years ago I did my Eddie merckx today it was Claude butlers turn,both snapped in the same place bottom of down tube just above bottom bracket ,anyone else have this happen to them ,on both cases no signs of rust both steel frames ,I guess they both date from the early 80,s maybe even 70,s, and bought second hand,and a good few thousand miles under their wheels, so natural wear and tear or am I just a fat bastard

 

[Paul.G.]

Could be down to how much power you are transferring through the pedals, do you do much hard climbing out of the saddle?

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

Crappy roads? I know Magnatom had a similar kind of frame snap through daily commuting.

 

[the cycling pikey]

think it could be more down to the roads there not getting any better,

 

[Gravity Aided]

I've some 30+ year old frames, and I'm over 20 stone and 6'4". Never had anything like this happen,over lots of miles. Could be roads, or bottom bracket stress of some sort, from standing while cranking up hills, or frictional stress in the bottom bracket. But it sounds like something is putting torque into the seat tube where it should not be. I am willing, knowing what I know from the original post, to put this down to natural wear and tear