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Safe enough to ride?
How do I evaluate my 14 y.o. steel Bianchi road bike to determine if it's safe
enough to take off the rollers and ride outside during bad weather? The frame shows no signs of cracked paint but there is surface rust around the eyelets for the cables on the top tube and the lugs show some surface rust along the edges. Last year, my Cinelli XA stem cracked across the faceplate; other than that, I've had no equipment failers and have used the bike for roller workouts only. I'm a bit hesitant to do any long rides with it, partly because of what happened with the stem, and partly because I don't feel I can *trust* it. Is this silly? Dan |
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Dan- How do I evaluate my 14 y.o. steel Bianchi road bike to determine if
it's safe enough to take off the rollers and ride outside during bad weather? BRBR If it works w/o failure on rollers, it will fine outside. Like they say, 'they don't make them like they used to'. I have a 20 year old Ciocc that I trust completely. A little surface rust is no problem. Peter Chisholm Vecchio's Bicicletteria 1833 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302 (303)440-3535 http://www.vecchios.com "Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene" |
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DanSMeyers Wrote: How do I evaluate my 14 y.o. steel Bianchi road bike to determine if it's safe enough to take off the rollers and ride outside during bad weather? The frame shows no signs of cracked paint but there is surface rust around the eyelets for the cables on the top tube and the lugs show some surface rust along the edges. Last year, my Cinelli XA stem cracked across the faceplate; other than that, I've had no equipment failers and have used the bike for roller workouts only. I'm a bit hesitant to do any long rides with it, partly because of what happened with the stem, and partly because I don't feel I can *trust* it. Is this silly? Dan Pull the seat post and stem to check inside the frame for rust. Get a new stem and bars. Sometimes sweat works it's way inside the frame and starts rusting it from the inside. If the those inspections are clear, coat the inside of the seat tube where the seat post fits and stem + inside the head tube with appropriate grease of anti-sieze compound. If those inspections make you wonder, pull the bottom bracket and look there. Closely inspect the "surface rust" outside areas you mentioned to make sure they are just surface rust. Clean them up and touch them up. -- daveornee |
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DanSMeyers wrote:
How do I evaluate my 14 y.o. steel Bianchi road bike to determine if it's safe enough to take off the rollers and ride outside during bad weather? The frame shows no signs of cracked paint but there is surface rust around the eyelets for the cables on the top tube and the lugs show some surface rust along the edges. Last year, my Cinelli XA stem cracked across the faceplate; other than that, I've had no equipment failers and have used the bike for roller workouts only. I'm a bit hesitant to do any long rides with it, partly because of what happened with the stem, and partly because I don't feel I can *trust* it. Is this silly? Dan I have a 34-yr-old Raleigh Pro. It became VERY badly rusted; pitted in some places. A thorough sand-blasting later, it was all nice and shiny. A good cheap powder coat, and it's one fantastic commuter on which I can go pound the pavement hard for an hour or so at "lunch time". |
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DanSMeyers wrote:
How do I evaluate my 14 y.o. steel Bianchi road bike to determine if it's safe enough to take off the rollers and ride outside during bad weather? The frame shows no signs of cracked paint but there is surface rust around the eyelets for the cables on the top tube and the lugs show some surface rust along the edges. Last year, my Cinelli XA stem cracked across the faceplate; other than that, I've had no equipment failers and have used the bike for roller workouts only. I'm a bit hesitant to do any long rides with it, partly because of what happened with the stem, and partly because I don't feel I can *trust* it. Is this silly? The Cinelli stem is aluminum, not steel, so its failure could not have been casued by rust. It is quite unusual for a frame to fail as a result of rust. When it does happen, it is almost always in the bottom bracket or chainstay area. This is where water tends to accumulate, and it's a particularly highly-stressed area of the frame. When frames fail due to rust, it is vanishingly unlikely that it would cause a crash or loss of control. The typical result is shifting problems or autoshifting, as the partially-detached bottom bracket starts to wiggle back and forth. If your frame does fail due to rust, the worst likely result will be that you will need to walk home or phone for a ride. It won't dump you on the ground or cause any sort of injury. Sheldon "Just Ride It" Brown +--------------------------------------------------+ | For every complex problem, there is a solution | | that is simple, neat, and wrong. | | --H. L. Mencken | +--------------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com |
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Subject: Safe enough to ride?
From: Sheldon Brown Date: 11/13/2004 2:39 PM Eastern Standard Time Message-id: DanSMeyers wrote: How do I evaluate my 14 y.o. steel Bianchi road bike to determine if it's safe enough to take off the rollers and ride outside during bad weather? The frame shows no signs of cracked paint but there is surface rust around the eyelets for the cables on the top tube and the lugs show some surface rust along the edges. Last year, my Cinelli XA stem cracked across the faceplate; other than that, I've had no equipment failers and have used the bike for roller workouts only. I'm a bit hesitant to do any long rides with it, partly because of what happened with the stem, and partly because I don't feel I can *trust* it. Is this silly? The Cinelli stem is aluminum, not steel, so its failure could not have been casued by rust. It is quite unusual for a frame to fail as a result of rust. When it does happen, it is almost always in the bottom bracket or chainstay area. This is where water tends to accumulate, and it's a particularly highly-stressed area of the frame. When frames fail due to rust, it is vanishingly unlikely that it would cause a crash or loss of control. The typical result is shifting problems or autoshifting, as the partially-detached bottom bracket starts to wiggle back and forth. If your frame does fail due to rust, the worst likely result will be that you will need to walk home or phone for a ride. It won't dump you on the ground or cause any sort of injury. Sheldon "Just Ride It" Brown Good points, as usual. The Cinelli stem is aluminum, not steel, so its failure could not have been casued by rust. That brings up another question: is this kind of failure to be expected after a certain number of years of use? Is this an *excuse* to periodically replace certain components? Dan |
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On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:52:24 +0000, DanSMeyers wrote:
How do I evaluate my 14 y.o. steel Bianchi road bike to determine if it's safe enough to take off the rollers and ride outside during bad weather? The frame shows no signs of cracked paint but there is surface rust around the eyelets for the cables on the top tube and the lugs show some surface rust along the edges. Last year, my Cinelli XA stem cracked across the faceplate; other than that, I've had no equipment failers and have used the bike for roller workouts only. I'm a bit hesitant to do any long rides with it, partly because of what happened with the stem, and partly because I don't feel I can *trust* it. Is this silly? Yeah, it's silly. The stem was aluminum, and under a lot of stress. Stems do occasionally fail. Watch for cracks there, and on the cranks. But the frame is steel. Whole different ballgame in terms of fatigue. -- David L. Johnson __o | Become MicroSoft-free forever. Ask me how. _`\(,_ | (_)/ (_) | |
#10
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I think what's spooked me is the fact the stem cracked all the way thru
behind the face plate while it hung in the basement. I'm concerned with other metal failures waiting in the wings. The stem was aluminium, the frame is steel. Phil Brown |
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