Fractured frame

While washing my mountain bike after an epic 20km ride a few Sundays ago, I noticed a crack developing in the aluminium frame! It appears to have been slowly growing for some time.

Below is the back side of the same crack, which had worked its way almost half way across the frame. I was lucky to spot it before it failed completely during a ride – potentially it could have ended very VERY badly!!

On closer inspection, I also noticed two other cracks developing in some welds further down on the same section. I’ve been really enjoying this bike and had no plans on replacing it just yet!

I don’t do massive jumps and this is classed as an “enduro” bike, meaning it should be strong enough to take moderate hits from jumps and drops beyond my current capabilities.

I bought this 2017 Avanti Competitor S2 Plus second-hand about one year ago. With the bike being only four years old, I decided to look into Avanti’s warranty online. While the frame has a “lifetime warranty”, it only applied to the original purchaser.

Below is a side view of where it fatigued, in a rather thin piece of aluminium that has no lateral support. There are only two unsupported thin pieces between the bottom bracket and the rear swing arm pivot, a part of the frame that is subject to the most aggressive and repetitive forces of pedalling and suspension movement.

On previous models of this German designed frame, the bottom rear shock mount was welded to the failing section, which would have stopped it flexing, but for some reason, they altered the design and welded the bracket to the lower frame without bracing the upright section.

After considering my limited options, I decided to try my luck with the local retailer for Avanti given that the failure appeared to be a direct result of inadequate engineering. No harm in trying right?

Find out what their response was in the next post … in the mean time, I’m left without a ride 😦