• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Aluminum frames

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
7

72 merckx

Nov 15, 2009
6
0
0
Visit site
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

RDV4ROUBAIX

Mar 19, 2009
2,703
3
0
www.ridemagnetic.com
72 merckx said:
I'll put up a pic when I figure out how to.
Click to expand...

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:cool:
 
tubularglue

tubularglue

Jul 2, 2009
1,079
0
0
Visit site
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


Ultralite_race_decal.gif


merckx_7_hi.jpg
 
7

72 merckx

Nov 15, 2009
6
0
0
Visit site
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

RDV4ROUBAIX

Mar 19, 2009
2,703
3
0
www.ridemagnetic.com
72 merckx said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
7

72 merckx

Nov 15, 2009
6
0
0
Visit site
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

RDV4ROUBAIX

Mar 19, 2009
2,703
3
0
www.ridemagnetic.com
72 merckx said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.:D Still using a polaroid?:rolleyes:

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.:eek:
 
K

kiwirider

Jun 16, 2009
346
0
0
Visit site
tubularglue said:
one of these might find me some day,

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

(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 ... :(
 
tubularglue

tubularglue

Jul 2, 2009
1,079
0
0
Visit site
kiwirider said:
(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 ... :(
Click to expand...


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

Bianchi%20EV41.jpg
 
L

LugHugger

Mar 10, 2009
1,384
0
0
Visit site
kiwirider said:
(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 ... :(
Click to expand...

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!
 
F

flicker

BANNED
Aug 17, 2009
4,153
0
0
Visit site
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom