Death of a Record Ace

[pete75]

The sock chap appears to be wearing SPD sandals so thought he was the rider.

It went on a group ride, so all feet in shot are riders'. They probably are SPD sandals. The owner of those legs is also almost twice my age, the man who helped me get started touring abroad, so I ain't telling him he's doing it wrong

The split bike didn't have SPD pedals but I don't think that would have saved it.

No, probably would have been worse for you.

[SimonCelsa]

I've seen such things fixed with epoxy bandage. Pretty, it isn't.

Actually I'm thinking of a potential welded repair locally. A chap I know welded a cracked tandem chainstay (alloy) a couple of years ago and that's still holding. I'll give him a bell and see what he thinks. I'm not overly fussy about the aesthetics, maybe some sort of gussett. There's an almost identical frameset on eBay at the moment, although a bit smaller at 57cm so there's a couple of options hopefully.

[Bmblbzzz]

The sock chap appears to be wearing SPD sandals so thought he was the rider.

It went on a group ride, so all feet in shot are riders'. They probably are SPD sandals. The owner of those legs is also almost twice my age, the man who helped me get started touring abroad, so I ain't telling him he's doing it wrong

The split bike didn't have SPD pedals but I don't think that would have saved it.

No, probably would have been worse for you.

Never mind the sandals, it's the pattern on those shorts that's an offence against Deus Sartorius (the Roman pantheon is flexible, even if it didn't do yoga!)

Commiserations to all who've suffered a frame breakage.

[PH]

Glad that it's only ben the frame that suffered, such breakages have the potential to cause serious personal harm!
I've not yet broken a steel frame, when a Ti one developed a crack, I was in two minds about repair, you'd need to be pretty confident that it's a one off and not likely to repeat elsewhere on the frame, I wasn't.

[Dingdong]

Unfortunately, unless you want to spend a small fortune having the tube replaced and the frame repainted, it's for the bin. I wouldn't be tempted to reuse the forks either. Shame because Raleigh frames from that era were really bombproof, but not, I suspect built with SA brakes in mind.

[iandusud]

Drum brakes in a fork not designed for them are an accident waiting to happen in my opinion.
Friend broke his forks with a Sturmey drum brake.
I suspect the frame may have had an impact before you acquired it. There Raleigh frames are pretty well put together.

I can certainly see the wisdom in not using a drum brake on a fork that isn't designed for one, but I don't see how it would adversely affect the frame unless the braking is significantly greater than with the original rim brake. In my experience not the case with drum brakes. That is not to denigrate drum brakes which I think have other advantages, notably being very low maintenance.

[alexnharvey]

I've seen such things fixed with epoxy bandage. Pretty, it isn't.

Actually I'm thinking of a potential welded repair locally. A chap I know welded a cracked tandem chainstay (alloy) a couple of years ago and that's still holding. I'll give him a bell and see what he thinks. I'm not overly fussy about the aesthetics, maybe some sort of gussett. There's an almost identical frameset on eBay at the moment, although a bit smaller at 57cm so there's a couple of options hopefully.

If a welded chainstay repair fails you'd probably notice before it fully goes and survive even if you don't. That's not necessarily the case with a down tube repair.

If you're right about the crack being near the end of the butting it would make a welded repair more difficult.

[Jamesh]

Probably a cyclical stress fracture with a point loading at the bottom of the lug.

Probably want a more sturdy frame for a SA drum brake tbh. But it won't ride as nicely.

[SimonCelsa]

Quick update, I'm thinking along the lines of transferring the front and rear Sturmey Archer hub braked wheels from the dead RRA across to another (more modern) steel frame. The Spa Aubisque (or similar) looks to be a good contender, Reynolds 725 with a gusset at the down tube/headtube intersection.

My rear wheel is spaced to about 123mm OLN (with 5 speed freewheel) which is about the maximum I can go to on that axle (155mm overall) and still allow sufficient threads to tighten up the axle nuts once it's in the dropouts.

If the Aubisque is say 135mm OLN then that means I'll be bending the rear stays and dropouts inwards a total of 12mm.......does not seem much on a big ship!! Reverse cold set, do you reckon 12mm is such a big deal, 6mm either side? It would be a largish frame also (57 - 60cm)

These drum braked hubs are relatively expensive so I don't fancy forking out £75 for another one and then building a new wheel; longer axles seem impossible to obtain also (well I checked with SJS and they do not stock them as spares.)

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome. Anyone got a largish Aubisque frameset (steel forks) for sale - I believe the seat tube was a tad oversized.

[mjr]

Longer axles are available and the swap is not too difficult because you don't need to dismantle all the cages: just slide them off one axle and onto the other.

[SimonCelsa]

Longer axles are available and the swap is not too difficult because you don't need to dismantle all the cages: just slide them off one axle and onto the other.

I can't find the longer axle for sale anywhere. I don't think it's just a plain long axle, it has machined areas spaced where the cartridge bearings sit I believe. Closest I could find was a bearing rebuild kit which was near as damn it the same price as a new hub!

Although perhaps you're right, maybe I can just use any suitable length cheap axle, I'll have to have a think.

[cycle tramp]

These drum braked hubs are relatively expensive so I don't fancy forking out £75 for another one and then building a new wheel; longer axles seem impossible to obtain also (well I checked with SJS and they do not stock them as spares.)

Really? 'Coz I bought a spare axle for my 135 oln drum brake from them two or three years back following advice from Brucey

[SimonCelsa]

These drum braked hubs are relatively expensive so I don't fancy forking out £75 for another one and then building a new wheel; longer axles seem impossible to obtain also (well I checked with SJS and they do not stock them as spares.)

Really? 'Coz I bought a spare axle for my 135 oln drum brake from them two or three years back following advice from Brucey

Well, they have this axle service kit but I really don't need all the other bits so £46 is a bit excessive really.

[cycle tramp]

They got one I stock its the 183 mm axle x-rd comes with bearings and spacers, yours for 45pounds ish...
...6 mm of spacers either side might allow you to go from a 5 speed freewheel to a 6 speed..... oh, the temptation!!

(Sorry, crossed with the post above)

[cycle tramp]

..yeah, but the chances are if you swap axles you're going to damage the existing bearings removing your original axle..