Hello all,
I had a crash and my downtube got dented. I have a Surly Steamroller. I have been to the bike shop and they said that its more or less safe to ride. Just have to pay attention to it. I will also sand it and repaint it with a primer. What do you guys think about it? Im using this bike for messenge job but Im a chill rider, no crazy stuff.
by x__misfit__x
15 Comments
That’s finished. Down tube has a lot of forces going through it. It will be fine until you hit the right pothole. Your shop is wrong
You could try a frame block to try to round it out. You don’t have much to loose, I don’t think it will make it worse.
That’s a bummer, dude. I agree with the other commenter, I wouldn’t want to ride that worrying about when it was going to fail. Surly’s customer service has always been superb for me, can’t hurt to shoot them a message and see if they are able to offer some kind of crash discount.
I once stripped the threads on a Surly New fixed/free hub while installing a new cog and sent them a note saying “hey I’m like 98% certain I didn’t fuck this up while installing” and laid out the steps and components I was using and they responded by sending me a completely upgraded Ultra New hub at no charge.
I bought a aloexpress alu frame. Built it witha grx400 groupset. It rides well. The cheap frames arent bad. I wouldnt go trail riding with the carbon fullys
Could be fine/could fail. I personally think it’s done and wouldn’t take the risk.
New frame day!
Look for a legit bike builder. Your downtube can be replaced as long as they have a spare tube in their shop.
It’s steel, so I’d ride it. I don’t see a catastrophic failure on the horizon. If you’re sweating it, have an experienced frame builder weld a sleeve over that spot before painting it.
Surlys are built with pretty robust cro mo, which is both strong and ductile. These dents are unsightly and big but don’t appear to be creased, and in all likelihood with never advance past this. Even if they do you will see it coming by either a crease developing, or a crack growing over time. Plenty of steel bikes with worse have gone in to be ridden many many more miles and this one will too.
If you’re chill, just ride it but keep an eye on it, especially for messenger duty.
It’s steel and Surly is top quality. The stickers suggest possibly Reynolds 531 – good stuff and strong. If it fails it’s unlikely to be “catastrophic” failure. It will probably be fine but might slowly worsen and you should be able to notice it.
Any local frame builder or a good old-school bike shop should be able to repair, possibly surprisingly cheaply, although heat will probably be involved so fresh paint would be required.
A fair question is, what is the consequence of a down tube failing? Especially a steel one… wouldn’t a steel one likely bend somewhat more instead of snapping or cracking?
Should immediate catastrophe be ruled out, it absolutely could be monitored if failure would be likely to be gradual (a severe crash could bend a fully intact down tube anyway). I wonder if some sort of collar or stiffener sleeve would mostly resolve the weakness in this spot, like with tent poles.
Because it’s a single-speed road bike, I am guessing this is for paved commuter use and not for regular downhill sprints or trail hopping. That probably matters when deciding whether the bike is safe for the purpose. If you ARE using it for gravel/MTB I would stop doing that for sure. Otherwise, on the street you could hit a pothole… but you don’t need to imagine an ungodly big pothole crash causing the frame to buckle. Probably will hit some bumps and cracks and small potholes routinely, but I wouldn’t presume that a commuter bike has to survive moon crater strikes in order to be “safe”. Your average used bike probably won’t fare well hitting a big pothole at full speed. If this dent keeps expectations more or less the same, it’s rideable.
General rule of thumb is a dent should not be more than 10% of the tube diameter, more and it affects the strength. Yours looks to be mid tube, and quite a crease. But mid tube is where it’s less affected by weld stresses/ annealing. It’s also steel which is less likely to part company in a spectacular way. I’d leave it as it is, mark the dent and check that no cracks appear along the crease line. Further paint flaking could suggest things are moving. If this was aluminium I’d run a mile, that stuff is like a coiled spring when it goes it goes. Steel is just likely to open up over time, but make sure you check it regularly.
New bike day!
you could probably ride this safely basically forever but i would definitely keep an eye on it. as others have mentioned, definitely try and contact surly’s customer service as you have literally nothing to lose.
Are you sure that’s not the seat tube?