Frames

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Brazed steel Rivendell Rambouillet frame failure. At joint between right rear dropout and chain stay.

Owner reports the break occured about 2km from the end of a 400km ride.

Frame is about 4 years old, and about 40,000km use.

This is a "classic" failure for bicycles with freewheels, as overhung axles tend to break and lead to dropout flexing. This bicycle used a Shimano 6500-series (Ultegra) 130mm cassette hub, which avoids the overhung axle.

This frame was built with 132.5mm droput spacing to allow use of both 130mm and 135mm hubs. In normal use the dropout and stays are under slight additional bending load. It is not clear if the residual stress is a contributing factor.

See also FAIL-062.html.