My Bike has snapped in 2!!! (56k killer)

[KillerHERTZ]

For the past 3 nights cycling home my 1999 Trek Y3 and it has been acting weird, wobbling like it had a rear flat tyre.

Tonight I was cycling home when I attempted to cross a busy road, as I cycled off the kerb I ended up head first into the oncoming traffic!

Bracing the fall, I held my elbow out - now I feels broken :cry:


Anyway, the bike is 5 1/2 years old and I do thrash it, so I guess its just metal fatigue from over the years.

From what I can tell, its just the hingle bolt has cracked, are these avaible to buy? or is the bike a right off?

Anyone else had this happen to them?

 

[NormanB]

Well it sure is the stressed part of the construction. I must confess I am no expert but I would remove all the pieces of this bolt/pin from the frame members and just examine to see if any damage has been done in way of the pin as it passes through the frame members. I would guess a replacement pin could be obtained if you go to a 'good' bike shop - may have to be ordered though.

I bet the pain was only surpassed by the utter feeling of suprise - did you look round to see if there were any witnesses?

 

[GrahamC230K]

It does look like the weak point of the construction, a single pin bearing all that load.

 

[grasmere]

Anyone else had this happen to them?

Glad you're ok

A few years ago I had one of those folding bikes with small wheels, you could undo an L shaped locking piece at the base of the downtube (similar in location to where you're is broken) and the downtube itself gave way at the very lowest point.

It happened in approx 10 seconds slowly getting nearer the ground. Next thing I couldn't peddle as the peddles struck the ground and I came to a quick stop - he he - no one was looking but I felt a right pillock carrying the remains back home ( a couple of hundred yards fortunately).

My worst incident was on the same bike cycling past a typing pool (when they used to have them ) I was carrying a camera in my right hand and I wanted to change gear (handle bar mounted sturmey archer - for the oldies ) the gear change was on the right hand side and I only had my left hand free - you know whats coming I let go with my left hand and was riding 'no hands' and then tried with my left hand to change gear on the right hand side - I thought about it and planned how to do it and then went for it - after approx 1 nanosecond i was flying through the air straight over the handlebars - the bike stopped dead as the handlebar twisted the wrong way - I went straight on and the camera went up and smashed on the ground. I picked up the camera bits, grabbed the bike, walked calmly round the corner away from the typists all gawking at me, and yelled AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH as I looked and felt all the skin on my knees and palms were shredded on the gravel road.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Gutted mate!

Not sure if my arm is broken, will wait till moring

As far as I can tell, its just the bolt and the surrounding 'washers'.

I fell into on-coming traffic which was bad enough, then I had to carry it swinging around with a dodgy arm for 1 mile

 

[PaulSmart]

I would take ot to a bike shop - you never know Trek may have a lifetime frame warranty - something like Mobil (or not!!)

I prefer hardtail bikes (KONA!!)

pAUL

 

[fuzzer]

yikes , bet that was a shock !!

I saw another cyclist having an argument with a Renault Megane senic maybe wasnt the best plan for him to shoot up the inside of the traffic in a densely populated urban area

 

[Doodle]

That one gets filed under the 'owch' category...hope the arm feels better soon.

I did manage to crack the frame on my old GT STS-DH a few years back, the snap of carbon-fibre haunts me to this day! Fortunately it gave me enough warning to stop and carry it the rest of the way before it got any worse.

To add injury (not mine) to insult, it was stolen from my garage 3 days later. Usual paperwork of filling in forms to the police etc to declare it stolen, during which I was asked to come and see if the remnants of a bike they'd found were mine...

...it seems the thief had tried to cycle away on it, the frame gave way and ejected him into a wall head-first. Laugh? I nearly pissed myself.

 

[Howard]

I would contact Trek UK, and explain the situation.....

You paid a lot of money for the bike, you just use it for the daily commute (yeah right ) , you bought it because of Treks reputation for building good bikes......

Then tell them that when it snapped you were pitched into oncoming traffic nearly breaking your arm (get piccys of injury if poss) ......

I bet they fix it FOC for you ......


H

 

[Benzowner]

Sorry to hear of your accident, as others have said, I wouldn't expect a bolt like that to fail, but as you said the bike is 5 1/2 years old, maybe it should be a service replacement item. Hope your arms is only brused and not broken, and heals quickly

 

[scotth_uk]

Bummer about the bike. :-(

I hate suspension on road used push bikes. Every time I stand up to pedal, I feel like most of my torque/power is going into flexing a shock or a spring. Hard nose/tail all the way! Ridgeback Storm!

 

[nickmann]

Hope you're OK. If you have a relationship with your local trek dealer then there is no harm in asking about replacement. As cycle racing is my sport I have been through this a few times. Some manufacturers do offer lifetime warranties on their higher-end frames (say £2000 frame cost), but even then you'd still need paperwork and a service history to get anywhere.

Hopefully you'll find that you're back on the road after a replacement pivot. Obviously I can't see from the pic but hopefully the framce itself is undamaged - recreational frames are built pretty robustly.

 

[Satch]

Obviously lower pivot has failed and that is always the weakest part of a Y frame. You will need a whole new cartridge fitted.