Well it turns out I had an interesting ride in the Sandilands last night. I discovered early on that my frame was cracked! Right above where the top tube meets the seat tube an inch long crack, leaving about 3/4 of an inch at the back of the seat tube that isn't damaged.
I decided to make the choice to keep riding - after all we were decked out in helmet and handlebar lights and it was beautiful evening. Bright red tea leaves were magnified by our lights along the trail and the reindeer moss shone like snow! It is amazing how much faster it feels when you are riding in a tunnel of lights and trees along a singletrack. At one point we all disappeared beneath a fallen over pine tree that we basically had to punch through - looked really cool! Pat met up with a deer at one point - definitely made those hairs on the arms stand up seeing the reflection of eyes looking back at you!
My lovely 2002 Giant NRS2 Modified Bike complete with broken seat-tube!
My frame stood up to the evening ride but it looks like I will have to dismantle the atomic bicycle and send the frame in for warranty. I did some checking and it looks like I may get a new frame from Giant out of it all! I'm leaning towards then selling it and looking at a new bike for 2006. We'll see how it all turns out!
G
4 comments:
Hey, the photos don't seem to be working...
That's weird because they are working for me? Have you tried refreshing your browser? I'm using firefox and its all good here...I'm in the midst of stripping my frame, so I can send it off to Giant for warranty.
Thankfully, my friend Trevor is lending me his Giant VT3 for next week as I'm teaching mtn biking & other outdoor ed related skills! Hopefully I won't have to wait long for a new frame...
G
Seems to be fine now.
Weird place for a frame break -- you'd think there wasn't much stress at that point, except maybe from the seat tube if it was set too high, which you wouldn't do.
Keep us posted on the warranty process...I'm always interested to hear how the bike companies deal with those issues. This summer on a ride with a friend, this was the moment we discovered that the chainstay yoke on his Kona was broken right through...disappointing to say the least. It was a five-year-old bike, but Kona was great for him, replacing the whole rear triangle with no questions asked. Myron had a similar experience last year too, and his bike was more like a '97 model, which I thought was pretty cool.
Well - I dropped off my frame and it looks like it will probably take a couple weeks at least before a new one comes my way...we'll see what happens!
I too was surprized by where the frame broke as I'm not tall enough to actually raise my seat to height that would damage the seat tube. I asked the owner at Olympia (where I purchased the bike) and he said he had seen lots of NRS's break there - some sort of design flaw or inherent weakness at that location.
G
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