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    Give it to me straight, doc. Is this frame (steel) cooked?


    Noticed this rather large dent in the downtube of my beloved Monster across after taking a spill during a ride a few days ago. Took it on a few other rides before noticing it today and it still rides just fine. Am I taking a risk with every ride going forward or is there still some life left in this frame?

    Give it to me straight, doc. Is this frame (steel) cooked?
    byu/basbell4 inbikewrench



    by basbell4

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    12 Comments

    1. hopefulcynicist on

      Sand the rust on either side of that dent (and maybe along the dent itself) down to bare metal. If you can make it shiny, treat / paint and keep an eye on it.

      Maybe a bit of a risk, but it probably won’t fail catastrophically.

      If no shiny before hole-y, definitely toast. Basically just wanting to rule out a rotten tube. 

    2. krafty369 on

      I’ve seen some serious dents get ridden for a while. Your results may vary. This is something I would definitely keep an eye on, and start looking at replacing before too long.

    3. jgeog on

      Eh, to my mind it’s ok, maybe baby it a little more. It’s not great, but it doesn’t feel that likely to buckle there, since normal riding puts that tube more in tension, while the top tube is more in compression. It’s unsightly but to me less concerning than a kink on the top tube or a crinkle behind the head tube from a frontal collision. At least those are my thoughts.

    4. Motor-North-4120 on

      I’d definitely be worried but if you just ride on pavement then it could be ok.

    7. Worldly_Possible2925 on

      I would sand around it to make the steel damage clearly visible. I would then take some reference photos, {from a replicable location} and then clear coat the exposed steel. Ride it and monitor it every couple of days. If you see any changes in the damaged area, bail it. Otherwise I would ride it, but I wouldn’t “freestyle it”.

    9. Forsaken_Ocelot_4 on

      You know, rather than posting here, you could send these photos to Mike Varley and see what he thinks.

    10. Lopsided_Belt_2237 on

      You could reinforce that section by welding on a steel plate, or wrapping it in carbon. Or filling it with high strength cementitious grout.

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