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The Stinger Stung

Son of Update: The new frame failed in the same place after less than 1,000 miles. Apparently of the total of four Stinger frame failures thus far, my two have been the only ones like this. One broke behind the steerer (nasty) and I don't know where the other went. The frame has now been redesigned in a better grade of alloy, stress-relieved and with a reinforcing plate. Apparently my next one will be red...

*UPDATE* - the new frame has been delivered and is Even Nicer than the old one :-)

I haven't heard of anyone other than Baron owners having this kind of problem so it looks like an isolated incident.

Anyway, courtesy of Darth Ian at FutureCycles, here are a couple of pictures of my broken frame.


From the side, you can see that the boom was hanging on by the skin of its teeth.



Look closely and you can see the boundary between the shiny fatigue fracture (working out from inside) and the brittle fracture.


© 2005, Guy Chapman. printed at 01:34 PM on 07/31/2010 version 1 last changed 04/21/2005 10:03 PM
http://www.chapmancentral.com/web/public.nsf/Documents/The_Stinger_Stung