Aluminum frames

[72 merckx]

Due to the fact that I love this bike and also because I can't afford to replace it. I just went past 51,000 miles on my 2001 merckx sc. And I did that cat.2 racing.
The frame has held up great. I crashed it heavily 4 times(3 of which put me in the hospital) and in the spring of 09 I replaced the fork due to 4 nice cracks.
But what a great bike and hopefully when I can afford a new bike it will go to my son. Pic in my albums.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

I'll put up a pic when I figure out how to.

You need to upload your photos to something like a photobucket, or picasa web album. When you post a thread or a message there is a number of formatting tools in the frame, one of the buttons which looks like a postcard with mountain is the "insert image" icon. There you can paste in the link to your photo, and will then show up in your posts

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

By the way, the "SC" designation on your bike stands for scandium, not aluminum.

 

[tubularglue]

very nice frames:

the bianchi i ride uses easton ultralite race. I would like to think this tubing is not such a distant second to Easton's scandium. For a reason i cannot explain, my aluminum bike rides very different
(very stiff yet thin enough to feel the road) than a ti bike i have, and those carbon bikes i have sold off. go figure.

for some time i had always thought bianchi, merckx, kona and some other builders had easton producing their frames. probably wrong on this one?

Easton promotes these as the thinnest alum. tubing you can build with, but how about col. airplane. curious?

http://www.eastonbike.com/PRODUCTS/TUBESETS/tubesets_ultralite_race.html

 

[72 merckx]

scandium

Scandium is added to aluminum to make it more weldable. It does not add strength to the tubing. The tubing is still aluminum. Scandium is actually a very small percentage of the make up of the tubing.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Scandium is added to aluminum to make it more weldable. It does not add strength to the tubing. The tubing is still aluminum. Scandium is actually a very small percentage of the make up of the tubing.

I know, just messing with ya! You need a bit of hazing being a newbie. Don't forget that the scandium mix also slows down the oxidation rate of aluminum, which is why your bike has lasted so long and not turned into a pile of mush like some pure alu bikes do from back then.

 

[72 merckx]

Regarding newbie

Since I have been a racer for 30 years it is hard being called a newbie but I will take it from someone who uses the pic of greatest paris roubaix rider and my personal hero Roger.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Since I have been a racer for 30 years it is hard being called a newbie but I will take it from someone who uses the pic of greatest paris roubaix rider and my personal hero Roger.

Your pedigree on the bike is not in question, you're new to the forum, so I had to razz you a bit, plus it's kinda slow here today.

Saw your pic. Only if your photographer had 30 years of experience. Still using a polaroid?

You should've seen the messages I got from about a dozen people earlier this spring asking if I was the "real Roger". Funny, but I was a bit deceptive sometimes posting as if I were him. My fault.

 

[72 merckx]

roger

Nothing wrong with dreaming about being Mr. Roubaix. And it's my wife with digital on a rainy day.

 

[tubularglue]

one of these might find me some day,

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/tech/2002/features/probikes/coast.shtml

 

[usedtobefast]

http://www.columbustubi.com/eng/3_2.htm

columbus aluminum info

 

[usedtobefast]

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/bik/1467981855.html

this is not me or my bike. for 160 usd it is a good deal for the right person.

 

[72 merckx]

Sought after ?

Sought after by who? What does this have to do with my merckx sc?

 

[tubularglue]

thread drift. it happens

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

You'll have to excuse my friend usedtobefast. Been to to many Dead shows, know what I mean.

 

[kiwirider]

one of these might find me some day,

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/tech/2002/features/probikes/coast.shtml

(Apologies for another bit of "thread drift", but I kinda feel like I need to put out a "public service announcement" to tubularglue after reading that post ...)

If you're lucky, one of those wont find you!!

I was a huge Bianchi fan and a few years ago managed to get my dream bike - an EV4!! I was absolutely stoked!!

However after a relatively little amount of riding, I got a lot less excited when I found vertical cracks at the top of the head tube! Not a good look ... but I stuck with it for a replacement frame ...

Next one lasted about a year and a half - at that stage I wasn't riding much, so would probably have been about 6000km all up. Now, NZ roads are rough - but they're not cobbles - so that should've been well within frame life. However ...

Riding home from work one night in winter and I heard a bang (on a smooth and obstacle free bit of road). The steering got a bit wobbly, but not too bad - but I couldn't take my hands off the bar without having to really fight to hold the bike straight (and upright). Long story short, when I got home and took off the velcro strap around the downtube that held the lead from the battery in place I found that the tube had split and had worked its way the whole way around the tube - thankfully also along the tube so that it didn't meet. The split started just above the "gear lever bosses" (whatever these are called now we're all on Ergo/STI) - and basically the bike was held together by velcro!

I have since found out that every single frame that came into NZ has also broken (not all in the same place) and that apparently frames of that vintage have had a really bad record globally - something to do with Bianchi not being able to work the alloys properly ... although I'll stand to be corrected on the international situation by people who have more first hand experience ...

So ... sorry if I've deflated the dream - but I'd rather do that than for you to have your dream deflated in the same way mine was ...

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Last of the great, "real", celeste green bikes, IMHO. But, if Taiwanese recycled aluminum cans are your thing..... no comment.

 

[tubularglue]

(Apologies for another bit of "thread drift", but I kinda feel like I need to put out a "public service announcement" to tubularglue after reading that post ...)


So ... sorry if I've deflated the dream - but I'd rather do that than for you to have your dream deflated in the same way mine was ...

the frames that came through my shop also all broke, and were (warrantied)replaced with scandium. Those couple of bikes, still happily ridden today. I digress

 

[LugHugger]

(Apologies for another bit of "thread drift", but I kinda feel like I need to put out a "public service announcement" to tubularglue after reading that post ...)
I have since found out that every single frame that came into NZ has also broken (not all in the same place) and that apparently frames of that vintage have had a really bad record globally - something to do with Bianchi not being able to work the alloys properly ... although I'll stand to be corrected on the international situation by people who have more first hand experience ...

So ... sorry if I've deflated the dream - but I'd rather do that than for you to have your dream deflated in the same way mine was ...

hmm ,seems that this is a global QC issue for Bianchi. I have two local riding buddies who both suffered frame failures - one at the BB/chainstay weld on an aluminium frame and another whose carbon BB cracked at the down tube. Neither are heavy 'mashers'. Wouldn't touch Bianchi for these reasons. Shame because they do look beautiful!

 

[usedtobefast]

You'll have to excuse my friend usedtobefast. Been to to many Dead shows, know what I mean.

can one go to too many?
i still work with some of those
folks...hey pass that over here...
thread drift.

 

[tubularglue]

i used to drift

 

[Hugh Januss]

i used to drift

Drift? Or spin out of control?

 

[flicker]

My Bianchi alluminum bike broke too. Great riding bike what a shame. Warranty did not cover. Low miles. Now I am riding TREK something 2200. 2006 model Way fast descending.