Hi all,
Unfortunately yesterday I had my first ever crash on a bike. I was descending down a steep long farm track. A combination of concentrating on my line, sunglass glare and the shadows of the tree branches completely concealed this gate from my vision. I pulled the brakes and simply couldn’t stop in time.
My hands and arms took most of the brunt, but unfortunately the head tube hit the gate at 15-20mph. It doesn’t look much in person, just a deep chip. Any way of knowing if it’s damaged the frame without stripping the bike down and sending it off to be x-rayed?
TIA
by George1710
6 Comments
The only way of really KNOWING is to get it x-rayed but no idea how or where you’d go about getting that done.
I’d be more worried about the forks than this part! it’s a tick part of the frame so should be fine. But, you and your weight transition could easily have cracked the forks where they meet the steerer or where the stem clamps
From your description I’d be slightly concerned, from the picture not at all.
Maybe remove the fork, visually inspect the inside of the headtube and do a taptest to see if it sounds weird?
Just my opinion. That’s a pretty tough part of the frame and there’s not much cosmetic damage so if it was me… I’d do the coin tap around the area and if there is not any noticeable change in sound, I’d raid my girlfriends (see what I did there) nail polish drawers, touch up and keep an eye on it. I might… just me again, buy a cheap can of Yellow spray paint and donate it to the cause, I’ve seen similar rusted gates that simply disappear into the background during different times of day. Be well mate and ride on.
No, we do not.
That looks absolutely fine.