Old trek 2100; please advise

Hi,

I have a trek 2100 that's carbon tubes and aluminum stayes and fork. I think
it was one of treks first carbon attemps. Anyway the bike was working for me
great until my gramma hit it with her car while it was parked in her garage.
This bent the left seat stay in about an inch. I didn't even notice the
bend until examining further when I noticed the chain was skipping back and
forth between gears. I took the bike to a trek dealer and they said trek
couldn't fix it but would give me 100 bucks off a new frame (..great).

So my question is - Would there be any reason I couldn't bend the stay back
out and if it cracks try to get a rod in it and weld around the brake or a
similar procedure? If not does anyone has any suggestions?

One more question. I was thinking about replacing the frame but I don't want
to spend very much. Nashbar has their aluminum 7005 frames clearanced for
$120. Has anyone out there any experience with these or a similar frame?
Would you recommend them as an affordable alternative? What are your
suggestions?

Anyones help would be so much appreciatied! Thank you in advance.

Thanks,



Andrew Behm

One more question. I was thinking about replacing the frame but I don't
want
to spend very much. Nashbar has their aluminum 7005 frames clearanced for
$120. Has anyone out there any experience with these or a similar frame?
Would you recommend them as an affordable alternative? What are your
suggestions?

There haven't been any complaints about the Nashbar frame. It's probably
the same frame quality as 80% of the road frames out there.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

I have a trek 2100 that's carbon tubes and aluminum stayes and fork. I
think
it was one of treks first carbon attemps. Anyway the bike was working for
me
great until my gramma hit it with her car while it was parked in her
garage.
This bent the left seat stay in about an inch. I didn't even notice the
bend until examining further when I noticed the chain was skipping back
and
forth between gears. I took the bike to a trek dealer and they said trek
couldn't fix it but would give me 100 bucks off a new frame (..great).

The repair on a frame that old may not be worth the expense. My guess is
that it would be possible for TREK to repair it, but by the time you take it
apart, replace the tube and repaint it, you'd be looking at maybe $600...
which, given the cost of a new frame, doens't make it too practical. I
wouldn't laugh at the $100 off on a new frame (or bike, doesn't matter)
though; it's $100 better than nothing, and obviously it's not a warranty
situation.

But why aren't you having your grandmother's car insurance take care of it?
I'm almost positive it would be covered, and if the deductible is $250,
you're still not too bad off.

So my question is - Would there be any reason I couldn't bend the stay
back
out and if it cracks try to get a rod in it and weld around the brake or a
similar procedure? If not does anyone has any suggestions?

If it's truly an inch, or even close to that, I wouldn't trust bending it
back into place.

If you ride a lot, it might be an opportunity to use the insurance money to
upgrade to something newer; since you purchased that bike, significant
improvements have been made in shifting & brake performance, and if you've
got a lot of miles on it, could be that things are getting rather worn by
now anyway.

--Mike--
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com

Making a claim against your Granny's insurance will possibly affect
her rates. If not immediately, another incident could cause her to be
dropped. She certainly is not in an age group where she can afford to
take that risk. Insurance companies are very particular about claim
history since they lost big money in their investments several years
ago. Even worse would be to make a claim on your homeowners
insurance.

Steve, who does not sell insurance but knows by experience.

Having made a $1800 claim for water damage from a broken pipe made it
hard to get good rates on a recent home purchase. It is best to
consider most types of insurance for catastrophic events only.

"Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles" wrote in message om...
I have a trek 2100 that's carbon tubes and aluminum stayes and fork. I
think
it was one of treks first carbon attemps. Anyway the bike was working for
me
great until my gramma hit it with her car while it was parked in her
garage.
This bent the left seat stay in about an inch. I didn't even notice the
bend until examining further when I noticed the chain was skipping back
and
forth between gears. I took the bike to a trek dealer and they said trek
couldn't fix it but would give me 100 bucks off a new frame (..great).

The repair on a frame that old may not be worth the expense. My guess is
that it would be possible for TREK to repair it, but by the time you take it
apart, replace the tube and repaint it, you'd be looking at maybe $600...
which, given the cost of a new frame, doens't make it too practical. I
wouldn't laugh at the $100 off on a new frame (or bike, doesn't matter)
though; it's $100 better than nothing, and obviously it's not a warranty
situation.

But why aren't you having your grandmother's car insurance take care of it?
I'm almost positive it would be covered, and if the deductible is $250,
you're still not too bad off.

So my question is - Would there be any reason I couldn't bend the stay
back
out and if it cracks try to get a rod in it and weld around the brake or a
similar procedure? If not does anyone has any suggestions?

If it's truly an inch, or even close to that, I wouldn't trust bending it
back into place.

If you ride a lot, it might be an opportunity to use the insurance money to
upgrade to something newer; since you purchased that bike, significant
improvements have been made in shifting & brake performance, and if you've
got a lot of miles on it, could be that things are getting rather worn by
now anyway.

--Mike--
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com

In article ,
"ZeeExSixAre" wrote:

One more question. I was thinking about replacing the frame but I don't
want
to spend very much. Nashbar has their aluminum 7005 frames clearanced for
$120. Has anyone out there any experience with these or a similar frame?
Would you recommend them as an affordable alternative? What are your
suggestions?

There haven't been any complaints about the Nashbar frame. It's probably
the same frame quality as 80% of the road frames out there.

I think I hear Dave about to chime in...a friend bought one last year,
and it seems a perfectly serviceable Al frame. There are various rumors
about what major maker is responsible for the design (it is sold with
pretty "Framé" stickers which are very tasteful, clearly aimed at the
Tar-zhay market segment), but the clear answer is that it comes from a
big factory in Asia.

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

On Fri, 27 Feb 2004 22:32:14 -0800, "Brad Behm"
may have said:

So my question is - Would there be any reason I couldn't bend the stay back
out and if it cracks try to get a rod in it and weld around the brake or a
similar procedure? If not does anyone has any suggestions?

Even if the stay does not appear to crack, it may develop fracturing
that will manifest itself later. breaking a stay is usually not
catastrophic, but I can't say that this makes any kind of an argument
in favor of "try it and see what happens". In any event, I doubt that
you'll get the dropouts to line up properly if you decide to try to
work the kink back out. The thing to keep in mind is this; you aren't
really *undoing* the damage when you try to straighten the tube, youre
*bending it again* to try to get it closer to where it was before the
first bend was made. Every time you bend it, you increase the chances
of a failure. If you take it to a skilled frame builder to have the
stay replaced, it will probably cost more than a near-equivalent frame
from a number of sources. With some regrets, I'd say that unless you
have a particular fondness for that frame, it's best to regard it as
toast.

One more question. I was thinking about replacing the frame but I don't want
to spend very much. Nashbar has their aluminum 7005 frames clearanced for
$120. Has anyone out there any experience with these or a similar frame?
Would you recommend them as an affordable alternative? What are your
suggestions?

Nashbar's house products are pretty good in my experience. Bear in
mind tha you may need to replace some of your existing components as
part of the swap; the steerer length may be too short, the seat post
size may be a mismatch, etc. It's $120 for the frame, yes, but you
could very easily end up spending $250 or more (plus frieght, which
isn't trivial on a frame) to get your bike back up.



--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

In article ,
Brad Behm wrote:
I have a trek 2100 that's carbon tubes and aluminum stayes and fork. I think
it was one of treks first carbon attemps. Anyway the bike was working for me
great until my gramma hit it with her car while it was parked in her garage.
This bent the left seat stay in about an inch. I didn't even notice the
bend until examining further when I noticed the chain was skipping back and
forth between gears. I took the bike to a trek dealer and they said trek
couldn't fix it but would give me 100 bucks off a new frame (..great).

So my question is - Would there be any reason I couldn't bend the stay back
out and if it cracks try to get a rod in it and weld around the brake or a
similar procedure?

I would call the frame trash and get another one. The frame had
very little value before it was damaged and is not worth repairing.
Additionally, damage to the carbon portions of the bike or bonded
joints may not be apparent from a visual inspection so the frame
is pretty suspect even if the stay were replaced.

If not does anyone has any suggestions?

One more question. I was thinking about replacing the frame but I don't want
to spend very much. Nashbar has their aluminum 7005 frames clearanced for
$120. Has anyone out there any experience with these or a similar frame?
Would you recommend them as an affordable alternative?

It would be a cheap way to get back on the road, if that's your budget.

What are your
suggestions?

There are a number of dealers of house-branded Asian imports that
have competitive prices you could use for comparison shopping such
as Nashbar, supergo.com, chucksbikes.com. If you want something
a little nicer you might look at gvhbikes.com.

If you are shopping for aluminum bikes, beware some of the really
cheap ones are exceedingly heavy. I would also definitely ask the
dealer what they can do for you, whether in a Trek frame or something
else. If you find a dealer that has a sale-priced frame or is
willing to look over distributor hot sheets for you, you may find
a bargain. If $120 is your budget I would also consider a used
steel frame since there are many good deals out there on high quality
steel, and they're more likely to be reliable than a random cheap
aluminum bike.

--Paul

"Brad Behm" writes:

Hi,

I have a trek 2100 that's carbon tubes and aluminum stayes and fork. I think
it was one of treks first carbon attemps. Anyway the bike was working for me
great until my gramma hit it with her car while it was parked in her garage.
This bent the left seat stay in about an inch.

I have a 2300. The rear triangle is aluminum, and when it gets bent,
there is virtually nothing you can do to fix an aluminum bike. Unlike
steel, cold-working aluminum weakens the metal substantially, so if
you tried to bend it straight, the seat stay would be toast. Also,
since the rear triangle is welded together, with an aluminum seat lug
and bottom bracket, it is difficult to impossible to disassemble the
bikes into its constituent tubes.

This is why many people think aluminum bikes are crap. Once they get
bent, you must throw them away.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA

"Brad Behm" writes:

I have a trek 2100 that's carbon tubes and aluminum stayes and
fork... ... my gramma hit it with her car .. This bent the left seat
stay in about an inch.

These frames show up all the time on ebay at a price of $100 - $200.
if you liked the frame (I love the ride of mine), and you don't want
compatibility problems with moving your parts over to a new frameset,
then I would recommend that you just buy another one used.

The one thing to look out for, according to trek dealer mike at chain
reaction, is delamination of the carbon fiber on the top tube near the
seatpost. Some people have molecular acid for sweat and it causes the
finish to erode and the carbon to delaminate at this point.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA

I have a 2300. The rear triangle is aluminum, and when it gets bent,
there is virtually nothing you can do to fix an aluminum bike. Unlike
steel, cold-working aluminum weakens the metal substantially, so if
you tried to bend it straight, the seat stay would be toast. Also,
since the rear triangle is welded together, with an aluminum seat lug
and bottom bracket, it is difficult to impossible to disassemble the
bikes into its constituent tubes.

Donald: The bike in question has a fully-bonded frame, with carbon-fiber in
the three main tubes (top tube, down tube and seat tube) and aluminum
elsewhere. Any of the tubes can be removed and replaced; however, the
expense of doing so is considerable (just as it is with a steel frame, when
you consider the cost of repaint etc).

This is why many people think aluminum bikes are crap. Once they get
bent, you must throw them away.

Very rarely does anybody bend an aluminum frame, outside of an extreme
accident. And the cost of repairing a steel frame, in the event that it
needs a tube replacement, is up there with the cost of a whole new frame.
Steel does have an edge if it simply needs to be straightened slightly
though, as this can be done fairly easily. Having said that, we used to see
steel frame tail sections (rear triangles) bent out of whack fairly
frequently; their overbuilt aluminum counterparts, on the other hand, are
rarely seen bent.

--Mike--
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com

"Donald Gillies" wrote in message
...
"Brad Behm" writes:

Hi,

I have a trek 2100 that's carbon tubes and aluminum stayes and fork. I
think
it was one of treks first carbon attemps. Anyway the bike was working for
me
great until my gramma hit it with her car while it was parked in her
garage.
This bent the left seat stay in about an inch.

I have a 2300. The rear triangle is aluminum, and when it gets bent,
there is virtually nothing you can do to fix an aluminum bike. Unlike
steel, cold-working aluminum weakens the metal substantially, so if
you tried to bend it straight, the seat stay would be toast. Also,
since the rear triangle is welded together, with an aluminum seat lug
and bottom bracket, it is difficult to impossible to disassemble the
bikes into its constituent tubes.

This is why many people think aluminum bikes are crap. Once they get
bent, you must throw them away.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA