Hey all, have a friend who has a custom Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel road frame that cracked at the seat tube near the BB. Frame was never crashed, one owner, 5 years old. The bike shop he got it from and IndyFab are saying it’s not their problem, the frame is rusted and rust isn’t covered by the warranty.
To me this seems like a load of crap, the crack is significant and the rust appears to be minimal (though he does live near the ocean). I feel like even Surlys are treated with framesaver and survive in coastal climates.
Curious to get others’ opinions, either way I find their response to be pretty lacking.
by silentbuttmedley
13 Comments
Yeah that’s some horse shit. Put’em on blast.
That mug stress cracked
I can see the bubbling in the photo. It may be a “stress crack” but only because it’s structurally compromised from the inside
Did they get the frame to evaluate and find that the inside of the frame was rusted to shit?
Or did your friend send them some blurry cell phone pictures of the exterior and they rejected it based just on those?
Nope, just a crap frame. That crack has nothing to do with a touch of rust at the weld, that’s a stress crack probably from not properly dealing with the steel after it was brazed. I’d be demanding a replacement and I’d be pretty vocal about it. Knowing what I know about their cost I’d even go as far as small claims court on it. A quick removal of the BB and pic of the inside of the tube should show it isn’t a rust issue and modern high end steels don’t rust that easily, especially if properly painted and def not in 5 years.
Seems nuts to think a frame could rust out to the point of being unsound after 5 years being ridden and otherwise stored indoors. If rust really is the culprit that should still be warrantied. Unless by “near the ocean” you mean “on a boat”. Then it would make perfect sense
If you read their [FAQ page](https://ifbikes.com/faq/#), they specifically talk about their seat tubes not being covered under warranty if rusted. I’ve owned several steel bikes before and I’m pretty sure they didn’t have seat tube warnings like that before.
Unless the frame was severely rusted out and neglected, this wouldn’t sit well with me if I were in your friend’s shoes.
So this is a known issue with both Indy Fab and Fat City. The rust due to IF using blind tubing. There is no weep hole between the seat tube and the BB shell. We drilled holes thru the BB shell into the seat tube in my old shop for this reason.
Indy Fab instructs owners to remove the seat post every few months to air out the seat tube, and doing the same after every time it rains.
IF uses “backed” water bottle eyelets and no vent holes. At least that’s how they used to do it. So there’s really no way for moisture to get into the seat tube at that point other than through the top which is unlikely with a seatpost installed. There would be little to no air to help with the oxidation either. The photo from the back looks like it has a crack at the bottom of the seat tube on the BB shell side. That wouldn’t be rust as its on the other side of the tube weld and wouldn’t be exposed to the same conditions as the inside of the tube.
My guess is they used the wrong seat tube for this and cut off the butted part at the bottom resulting in a too thin section of tube being welded at a high stress location. Or, the welds got too hot. Or a combination of the two. That part of the seat tube should be too thick to crack like that from simple corrosion. Bad welds, on the other hand, could cause a crack like that.
You should be able to get a plumber’s scope/camera down there to get good pictures of the frame from the inside. You might even be able to tell if the butt is missing with the camera. You may have to cut the frame apart to see it, but if they aren’t going to fix it, may as well cut it.
Or…
Assuming it’s not rusted out, you could stop drill the crack and have the tube welded and then an gusset welded on top of it. Wouldn’t be pretty, but it would still be a ridable bike.
But, yeah, I’d bet that’s workmanship. Be warned though, [this is right on IF’s web page](https://ifbikes.com/faq/), though I don’t know a single IF frame owner who does this every 3 months. And for what it’s worth, I have an IF that rusted at the brake bridge. It’s so old and beat that I didn’t even try to warranty it. (20 years old)
That’s fucking bullshit
It’s toast. Those frames always use very skinny wall tubing and rwelding that is next to impossible. This is nr 1 reason I avoid custom bikes of any kind and any age.
How old is it?
A competent frame builder could cut that out and replace the tube.
Unfortunately in the world of custom bikes often times the biggest names have some of the worst quality. Fat City bikes are worth so much money as collectables because they all cracked so there aren’t any left.