Came across my childhood bike, hoping to rebuild and give to my son. Brought it home and found stress fractures on bottom bracket. Weary about putting it back into service. The cracks can be seen from the inside as well, so all the way through.
Is this common? Anyone successfully welded this area? I will take it to a shop that does Aluminum, but wanted to get thoughts first. Appriciate any advice.
by toplobster1987
6 Comments
If the BB is cracked like that and the frame is aluminum, I’m willing to bet the rest of the tubes will crack soon too. That’s a wall hanger now.
EDIT : I have a old race frame that started to crack at the head tube/down tube welds, it’s what they do if you ride them hard enough or/and long enough.
Fuck. Never seen that before. I would assume is a wall hanger. Sorry
Sorry but welding Aluminum is not cost effective.
Aluminum frames are heat treated after they are welded together. This makes them considerably stronger. But the heat from welding means the frame needs to be re-heat treated afterwards. Otherwise it will crack again pretty soon.
So you’d need to take it somewhere that can do all this. It’d cost a lot – as it would also need a completely new paint job.
Get rid of it
I would recommend not building that frame back up. She’s toast.
Welding an aluminum BMX frame is basically a no go, you can’t do it yourself because it’ll need to be specially treated after it’s been welded otherwise the entire frame will fail, it’ll cost significantly more than the frame is worth to have it done professionally, and if the BB has gone, I’m willing to bet the headtube is about to go as well