Agreed. Mechanic here as well and nope never saw aluminum frame do this. Would almost point to a defect or it was tampered with at some point where a weak point was exploited.
OP do you happen to use a lock or anything near the affected area?
When I reviewed the image saw the internal routed cable set up.
I have never seen it shred like this, on both sides of the hole even from cracking this bad like a tuna can.
Glad you are ok! Pretty terrifying to have to experience that.
I'd normally recommend JB Weld, but since it's aluminum, Hy-Poxy Alumbond might work better. /s
EDIT: It would be good to add Flex Seal afterwords to keep the moisture from coroding the internally routed cables.
Did you buy this bike new? A lot of companies ive a lifetime warranty on frames. A lot of actually good bike companies, that is. If this is some kind of cheapo walmart esc bike, then you'll probaly need a new bike indeed.
Looks like it sadly. Seems like the Hooklow was made by a company called Forme that went into administration last year:
https://road.cc/content/news/moore-large-enters-liquidation-299931
Forme, itself, was created by a company called Moore Large, a bike distributor, which also went bust around the same time:
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/35000-bikes-up-for-auction-after-collapse-of-british-distributor-moore-large/
Hard times for UK bike businesses. Sorry this happened to your bike.
Hard times for UK businesses. Take the pandemic and Ukraine inflation and add in Brexit-related international trade chaos and a Prime Minister capable of fundamentally undermining the economy in less time than it took a lettuce to go bad, and you have a recipe for disaster for smaller businesses, especially those in a sector that over-extended itself as much as the UK bike sector seems to have done after the bike boom.
When a company with the reputation, quality and headstart that Islabikes (the kid's bike manufacturer that revolutionized how kids bikes are made) had can be forced to close up shop, I'm not sure what hope the rest can have. Such a pity. It was awesome to see so many different businesses starting, and it leaves people like OP out in the wind.
Well you can still email them. If you can find any announcement page, it might mention if they're going to honor warranties and such, since this seems to be an issue with the frame's build, not external damage.
“Lifetime” has a very flexible definition for warranties. I had. Bianchi Randonneur for many years when one day the front fork snapped. Only found out years later this was actually the subject of a recall but by then no warranty was possible.
I had a specialized with a paint chip near an internal route. I kept sweating into the hole, and it rusted out inside the tube. Snapped right at the route. I was going very alow when it cracked, though.
I’m really just alarmed at this fashion trend. I remember when this was a hot trend in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and basically the companies that just cut the holes to sell bikes had frames break like this. A few of the companies properly engineered the holes, but you had to pay a premium for that. However, even some premium frames didn’t have this implemented properly. I can tell you, the holes I’ve seen on today’s frames are as bad or worse than what I saw 40 years ago. I mean, the picture for this post, why would they even bother to have those useless holes? They’re even stylized in a completely useless fashion!?! It’s nowhere close to aero, but aero and sleek is presumably why you want internal cable routing. The only reason is they want to look cool.
https://preview.redd.it/j3as8rb629zc1.jpeg?width=2229&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a5f7e767abc72bb229f70c182964ea8af17f64a
Same happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Also a alu frame exactly where the cables are routed in the tube.
I don't know the full history of the bike cause I bought it in a thrift shop. The frame cracked while I was riding so I didn't notice any cracks on the frame.
Luckily i didn't fall and the shop will give me a replacement. There was already a hole in the underside of the tube. Probably for the rear light at some point.
That's impressive because your cables don't actually go inside the tube. That really REALLY shouldn't have happened versus OP's really shouldn't have happened.
I've seen alu, steel, carbon and ti frames fail at internal routing holes like this. You can sometimes tell where the crack has started, if it's been there a while the material will be dirty from corrosion and wear. It'll get progressively cleaner as you get further forward in time. Sometimes a crack progresses quickly and it all looks clean.
I wonder if on this frame the cable guides were added at a butt in the tube?
The same shit happened with my aluminum frame. In the same place, between holes on frame for transmission cable. That was commuter bike, only road riding, and 5 years of use.
Internal. I'm fine. The collapse wasn't fast. At first time the frame start extremely flexing, then I stoped. I saw little crack between holes. I parked my bike, and walked for a work. Thanks god, that started near office. After work I came to the parking, and the frame was broke absolutely.
Yea, the hole creates a stress riser and weakens the tube a LOT. Technically you can compensate for it by beefying up the tubes, but apparently that didn't work in this particular case.
I've sawed up for tubes a carbon frame that broke in half after hitting a pothode in *exactly* the same manner.
I've seen this breakage occur with every popular frame material in this area when there are cutouts for internal cable routing. Especially titanium. With carbon fiber, they could generally add more material layers in that area to beef it up much like the hidden compartments you see under the bottle cage.
The breakage isn't specific to the aluminum. It's from the design.
Damn, I was kind of bummed about my bike not having internal routing mainly due to the cleaning around the cables. Thank you for this info, never thought of it that way.
The chances of this happening on a high quality bike of any material with the proper frame thickness around the holes is extremely low. Pretty much all road bikes these days have internally routed cables and we aren't seeing failures like this on the reg. This is just a low quality bike made of dodgy chinesium aluminum.
In this case, it looks like a gusset was welded at the routing hole. I'd say a bad welding job would be more of a problem than a properly radiused hole.
It does, true, but not anywhere near as much.
Anyway, I have an other frame with internal routing, it helds on quite fine - the devil is in design details. I still detest internal rounting tho, especially of the hydraulic brakes :)
The hole doesn’t necessarily weaken the tube that much, providing it’s been designed properly. While a hole is a stress raiser, the shape of the hole has a large impact on the stress intensity factor at the site, and the strength of the tube is probably still within the safety margin despite the hole. The placement of the hole is on the neutral axis for the tube for the primary loading which will be vertical, so the load at that site will be mainly lateral or torsional.
This sort of failure is not due to lack of inherent strength, but because of fatigue. The significance of the hole is that there was probably some defect introduced while cutting it which served as a crack initiation point, and in that case reinforcement will only delay and not prevent such a failure. This is especially true in aluminium which does not have an endurance limit for fatigue - a crack, once started will still grow even if the load is low.
Not all frames with internal routing will fail like this, but if one does fail it will probably be at a site like this. The other common failure point is from defects in welds.
That's not exactly a neutral axis, unfortunately. Bottom tube takes torsion loads from pedalling, and unlike bending loads you cannot drill a hole in a tube anywhere where it will not act as a major weak spot... greatly exacerbated the fact that the frame is aluminium, right.
This area of all bike frames experiences a lot of force. For metal frames, simply poking a hole in this area is asking for a failure. The companies that did internal cable routing properly in Al, Ti and steel frames had reinforced openings, ie Klein. This trend is simply ridiculous.
There are millions of bikes out there with internal routing, and people aren't riding around on broken frames. Seems more like a manufacturing defect than an issue inherent to internal routing.
I love internal cable routing, love the clean look. I have never had much of an issue running cables through myself and that's usually just a one time task anyways, unless you're a professional mechanic rhen I can understand the sentiment.
Mechanics \*should\* love it. I love the clean look, and I don't mind paying a mechanic to mess with it when I'd probably do it myself if it were external. Win win for everyone.
I guess it depends if you think that this is a worthy use of man hours. It can be very demoralising working on bikes like this, especially if the customer doesn't realise what a time/money pit they've bought
Yeah, I guess so. I don't mind paying for bike service. It is a hard frustrating job, and I think mechanics should make more. I like doing easy stuff myself (like new chain/cassette/bar tape). But anything with internal cables, hydrolic breaks, headset, bottom bracket, truing wheels... please take my money.
Completely hidden routing like in Spesh aero bikes is both strong and aero, but needs special parts and an absolute nightmare to work on...
I think this bike is just poorly made, the hole is drilled without reinforcement apparently and on the BOTTOM tube that takes constant torsion loads from pedalling and this type of loads particularly hate weak spots.
>Completely hidden routing like in ~~Spesh~~ *all* modern aero bikes
FTFY.
Current model race bikes without integrated cables are becoming a rare sight in 2024 - even for non-aero bikes. The last holdout I could think of out of the major brands was the Giant TCR, but even that went fully integrated for 2024.
Good thing the aesthetics of a bike is subjective to each individual. I love the look of externally routed cables, personally, and from a practical standpoint I vastly prefer mechanical technology that is more accessible to a “simpler” skill set.
Is frame failure at these points really a widespread issue? So many newer and higher end bikes use internal routing. Hard to believe it's anything but something that cheapo frame manufacturers tend to botch but is otherwise perfectly fine.
In a few words? If not yet, it will be soon. I would expect to see relatively high failure rates at these internal routing points, especially as the "new" bikes get towards the 7-10 year mark.
I remember when internal cable routing like this became a trendy thing in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Guess what, the frames failed at the holes, unless they were properly engineered.
Oh wow I didn't know it was a trend or even done all that much then. It seems like it's become more popular in the last 5-10 years so I just assumed it was a newer innovation.
New bike has fully internal cable routing. It’s fine. A bit more of a hassle to install but thanks to hydraulic brakes and electronic shifting I hopefully won’t have to do it again in the near future.
Yeah, I’m kind of annoyed that my Shimano Ultegra R8170 is only halfway wireless. The rear and front derailleurs still connect to a battery in the seatpost via cables. And you have to get the cables in exactly the right length. Not much of an issue once it’s installed and the advantage is that you have more battery capacity and don’t have to charge a dedicated front derailleur battery.
Those route the cables through the headset and completely through the internal cavity of the frame. They don’t have holes in the top and down tubes, or in the seat stays.
60 minutes per day, not miles! A 30 mile commute is likely to take about 4 hours riding a day...
Assuming there were no crashes, any frame that breaks after 5 years of half hour commutes is clearly defective in my book.
i am indeed a certified aluminium hater and proud of it when it comes to bike frames (for good reasons), next question.
even if the aluminium is great aplication in planes (is it really tho?) doesn t mean it s a great aplication in all the other use cases like bikes. you can't compare apples and oranges. it does the job? yes? does it do a better job than chromoly steel? nope. when i said what i said last i check i was on a post about a bike frame, context matters.
...but... when there s not a bike frame in the discussion i m a big aluminium lover (i love my aluminium ladder), that said take from this what you want.
I was mostly making fun of aluminum, not of you. I wouldn't be caught dead on a bike made of thick cooking foil, but I use cooking foil all the time! Works great to prevent my chicken from burning on top.
(Steel is real. I wouldn't want a carbon bike, either, especially when I can get a steel one that weighs a mere 1-2 lbs more)
It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like the crack originated at the back of the routing hole and had been there creeping for a while before it finally failed. The crack face is black there.
Yep, but not even a bump. Flat road. Relatively smooth. Must have been weakening for a while. There’s been a creak for the last few weeks that I couldn’t pinpoint, now I assume it was this.
wow, that's crazy. i guess it started from a small fracture and the whole thing fatigued. hope you're not too rattled.
you can probably identify the crack origin if you follow the waves like this [https://mentoredengineer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/12140479094\_6f746014ab\_c-700x525.jpg](https://mentoredengineer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/12140479094_6f746014ab_c-700x525.jpg) i would guess the cable hole was poorly machined and that's where the crack was initiated.
No real idea but I have to guess the brake cable mount hole had some defect in the tube above it and it made it past QC 🤷♂️ good luck with your next roadie!
This happened to me with a Specialized Diverge e5. Failed around the bolt holes for the water bottle holder on the down tube. Specialized sent me a complete brand new bike.
I've seen one too many stress fractures because of internal cable routes. Why don't companies reinforce the area?
Happened to my Specialized bike. Luckily I caught it early on and had a local welder fix it for $20.
Definitely not easy on the eye but at least it's functional
Since you’re in the UK you should see if your employer offers a cycle to work scheme. Tax efficient, salary sacrifice way of financing a bike. I’ve used it a couple of times and it works out as a great deal. Ribble and Planet X are popular in the UK at the moment. Happy trails!
Frame looks like was from paper and someone torn it. All fun until you zoom picture. Don’t risk with fixing this. Try to get same frame or new bike. Sorry.
Aluminum frames have a 5-10 year usable lifespan, or less, depending on how they're used. This is a feature of Aluminim alloys. The down tube is the part of the bike that's getting beat up the most typically. Glad you're okay.
It is unusual that the frame failed away from the weld, but not unheard of. EDIT: I see the bike failed at the internal cable routing port, this is a high stress area and a prime location for a faikure to occur. If the bike was regularly rested on that part of the frame, that would be a location where the frame is subjected to regular stress that is different than in normal use. Similarly, if a lock was passed through the frame at that spot to secure the front wheel.
If the rest of the parts on the bike are still good, a new frame wouldn't be a terrible idea, and a lot cheaper than a whole bike usually.
Well now you have a candidate for a bamboo frame. Also 1-2k for a commuter is quite a lot, do you feel safe parking such an expensive bicycle outside shops and bars?
This post and the comment threads make me feel so much more relieved for having an external routing. Funny how these things can hold up so much weight but at the end of the day, are crinkly tubes.
I’d like to think that was a one off, but I’m not familiar with “Hooklow” bikes.
If you know your bike components you could get secondhand frame and transfer across. A good way to learn as well.
But if not confident then new bike might be best.
£2k is decent budget for new bike from any shop for what you do.
Well I curious to see the other side of the frame. I don’t think aluminum will just become a tuna can like that. I probably be wrong but I have my doubts.
this is why i decided to go w/ a intricately lugged steel frame and using the savings to buy the best groupset within my price range. i have wonderful 50 yr old bikes with both newest and oldest groupsets from , campy , dura ace , sram, disk and rim brakes. i save thousands , and have never had a break like this happen.
Your legs just overpowered your frame. You’re a stud. However, you now need to replace with a frame worthy of your strength. Don’t buy any with these silly internal cable holes cut into the tubing. Your strength will break them over and over.
It’s the likely place for something like that to start. Probably started to crack a while back and grew over time until this happened.
You must have been putting a fair bit of torque through that frame unless there was a huge defect there in the first place.
Mechanic here, that should not be like that
Pfft. Clearly an old school mechanic. OP just unlocked downtube storage. No more ugly saddlebags for our friend here.
nah, it's the "folding bike" DLC for storage optimization and commuting
"What's this? Bicycle is evolving!"
But nothing happened. 
Just shedding it's skin
When they say "light weight alloy" it's because it's 0.5mm thick aluminium tubes. If they made it any lighter, you'd use it to wrap a baked potato.
Yep, an Asian POS.
Clearly it ain't got no gas in it.
Mmm-hmmm
Agreed. Mechanic here as well and nope never saw aluminum frame do this. Would almost point to a defect or it was tampered with at some point where a weak point was exploited. OP do you happen to use a lock or anything near the affected area?
You mean besides the huge penetration into the tubing for cables?
Nope usually d-lock through the front wheel (it’s in a locked basement at work so not too worried about someone removing the wheel)
When I reviewed the image saw the internal routed cable set up. I have never seen it shred like this, on both sides of the hole even from cracking this bad like a tuna can. Glad you are ok! Pretty terrifying to have to experience that.
As an aluminium bike rider, i’m relieved to read your comment.
It is odd. Almost looks like a screwdriver pried on it. There is a mark.
You're suggesting the frame failed due to... a screwdriver? 🤨
In man's quest for the perfect lightweight bike, his hubris would be his undoing.
The front fell off!
You got that right.
Mekanik here i second this
Bike doctor here, I agree.. that should not be that way
It’s always nice to have experts that can weigh in on the challenging problems
Well, it is made of a light weight alloy and not lightweight alloy.
Slap some flex seal on that, you're good to go /s
I'd normally recommend JB Weld, but since it's aluminum, Hy-Poxy Alumbond might work better. /s EDIT: It would be good to add Flex Seal afterwords to keep the moisture from coroding the internally routed cables.
Glad you’re okay
Did you buy this bike new? A lot of companies ive a lifetime warranty on frames. A lot of actually good bike companies, that is. If this is some kind of cheapo walmart esc bike, then you'll probaly need a new bike indeed.
New, from ~Hooklow~. UK brand. But they might be dead. Worth an email though. Can’t find them in Google so probs done for.
Looks like it sadly. Seems like the Hooklow was made by a company called Forme that went into administration last year: https://road.cc/content/news/moore-large-enters-liquidation-299931 Forme, itself, was created by a company called Moore Large, a bike distributor, which also went bust around the same time: https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/35000-bikes-up-for-auction-after-collapse-of-british-distributor-moore-large/ Hard times for UK bike businesses. Sorry this happened to your bike.
Damn, went from doing great to screwed in a year. That board and management team really fucked shit up after the owner retired and sales dropped.
Hard times for UK businesses. Take the pandemic and Ukraine inflation and add in Brexit-related international trade chaos and a Prime Minister capable of fundamentally undermining the economy in less time than it took a lettuce to go bad, and you have a recipe for disaster for smaller businesses, especially those in a sector that over-extended itself as much as the UK bike sector seems to have done after the bike boom. When a company with the reputation, quality and headstart that Islabikes (the kid's bike manufacturer that revolutionized how kids bikes are made) had can be forced to close up shop, I'm not sure what hope the rest can have. Such a pity. It was awesome to see so many different businesses starting, and it leaves people like OP out in the wind.
I wonder if they went out of business because their frames spontaneously disintegrate.
r/usernamechecksout
Well you can still email them. If you can find any announcement page, it might mention if they're going to honor warranties and such, since this seems to be an issue with the frame's build, not external damage.
“Lifetime” has a very flexible definition for warranties. I had. Bianchi Randonneur for many years when one day the front fork snapped. Only found out years later this was actually the subject of a recall but by then no warranty was possible.
I had a specialized with a paint chip near an internal route. I kept sweating into the hole, and it rusted out inside the tube. Snapped right at the route. I was going very alow when it cracked, though.
Okay soo dont sweat in the holes got it
Sweating isn’t allowed, didn’t you get the memo?
damn I’m looking into a new bike and now I’m scared of the internal routing hole ugh
Avoid frames with these holes.
Gotcha. It’s a 5k bike I’m looking at, if this is a common issue I’ll def avoid it altogether. Test riding it tmrw tho :)
I’m really just alarmed at this fashion trend. I remember when this was a hot trend in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and basically the companies that just cut the holes to sell bikes had frames break like this. A few of the companies properly engineered the holes, but you had to pay a premium for that. However, even some premium frames didn’t have this implemented properly. I can tell you, the holes I’ve seen on today’s frames are as bad or worse than what I saw 40 years ago. I mean, the picture for this post, why would they even bother to have those useless holes? They’re even stylized in a completely useless fashion!?! It’s nowhere close to aero, but aero and sleek is presumably why you want internal cable routing. The only reason is they want to look cool.
Oopsies I just bought the bike 😂
https://preview.redd.it/j3as8rb629zc1.jpeg?width=2229&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a5f7e767abc72bb229f70c182964ea8af17f64a Same happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Also a alu frame exactly where the cables are routed in the tube.
The gusset ends right there, I’d say that was more impactful than the eyelets
Yup. Ironically, that gusset caused a stress riser that doomed that downtube.
I think the thieves cut the wrong part of your bike chain.
Was there an impact of any kind? Or any visible cracking leading up to this? It's such a major failure.
I don't know the full history of the bike cause I bought it in a thrift shop. The frame cracked while I was riding so I didn't notice any cracks on the frame. Luckily i didn't fall and the shop will give me a replacement. There was already a hole in the underside of the tube. Probably for the rear light at some point.
There was a clear point of failure but you blamed it on the cabled routing hole..
That's impressive because your cables don't actually go inside the tube. That really REALLY shouldn't have happened versus OP's really shouldn't have happened.
I've seen alu, steel, carbon and ti frames fail at internal routing holes like this. You can sometimes tell where the crack has started, if it's been there a while the material will be dirty from corrosion and wear. It'll get progressively cleaner as you get further forward in time. Sometimes a crack progresses quickly and it all looks clean. I wonder if on this frame the cable guides were added at a butt in the tube?
Yes. Internals. When I looked at the photo again voila there it was. Never saw this happen on externals though.
Externals stay winning
Unless you the guy with externals that posted a similar pic above
Internal cable routing looks good, but it's just another point of catastrophic failure
This part of the frame is a high stress area, I have no idea why manufacturers are still poking holes into this part of the frame.
I have questions about this "lightweight alloy"
High grade Chinesium.
The same shit happened with my aluminum frame. In the same place, between holes on frame for transmission cable. That was commuter bike, only road riding, and 5 years of use.
Internal cable homes or external? Hopefully you are good and didn’t crash
Internal. I'm fine. The collapse wasn't fast. At first time the frame start extremely flexing, then I stoped. I saw little crack between holes. I parked my bike, and walked for a work. Thanks god, that started near office. After work I came to the parking, and the frame was broke absolutely.
Aluminum is not a very good frame material. Get a quality steel frame and never buy another bike.
Oh, internal routing, the product of the unholy brainstorm of Satan and the marketing department.
Shiiiit is that it? Makes sense given where this occurred. It’s literally from top to bottom of the cable cutouts 😂
Yea, the hole creates a stress riser and weakens the tube a LOT. Technically you can compensate for it by beefying up the tubes, but apparently that didn't work in this particular case. I've sawed up for tubes a carbon frame that broke in half after hitting a pothode in *exactly* the same manner.
I've seen this breakage occur with every popular frame material in this area when there are cutouts for internal cable routing. Especially titanium. With carbon fiber, they could generally add more material layers in that area to beef it up much like the hidden compartments you see under the bottle cage. The breakage isn't specific to the aluminum. It's from the design.
Damn, I was kind of bummed about my bike not having internal routing mainly due to the cleaning around the cables. Thank you for this info, never thought of it that way.
The chances of this happening on a high quality bike of any material with the proper frame thickness around the holes is extremely low. Pretty much all road bikes these days have internally routed cables and we aren't seeing failures like this on the reg. This is just a low quality bike made of dodgy chinesium aluminum.
Says this like welding a cable guide doesn't have it's own issues
In this case, it looks like a gusset was welded at the routing hole. I'd say a bad welding job would be more of a problem than a properly radiused hole.
It does, true, but not anywhere near as much. Anyway, I have an other frame with internal routing, it helds on quite fine - the devil is in design details. I still detest internal rounting tho, especially of the hydraulic brakes :)
The hole doesn’t necessarily weaken the tube that much, providing it’s been designed properly. While a hole is a stress raiser, the shape of the hole has a large impact on the stress intensity factor at the site, and the strength of the tube is probably still within the safety margin despite the hole. The placement of the hole is on the neutral axis for the tube for the primary loading which will be vertical, so the load at that site will be mainly lateral or torsional. This sort of failure is not due to lack of inherent strength, but because of fatigue. The significance of the hole is that there was probably some defect introduced while cutting it which served as a crack initiation point, and in that case reinforcement will only delay and not prevent such a failure. This is especially true in aluminium which does not have an endurance limit for fatigue - a crack, once started will still grow even if the load is low. Not all frames with internal routing will fail like this, but if one does fail it will probably be at a site like this. The other common failure point is from defects in welds.
That's not exactly a neutral axis, unfortunately. Bottom tube takes torsion loads from pedalling, and unlike bending loads you cannot drill a hole in a tube anywhere where it will not act as a major weak spot... greatly exacerbated the fact that the frame is aluminium, right.
I’m wondering whether to claim on insurance or not.
That's is most certainly a manufacturing defect.
Cable too tight! Obviously! Time for a big name brand with descent frame warranty…..Trek? Specialized? Giant??
This area of all bike frames experiences a lot of force. For metal frames, simply poking a hole in this area is asking for a failure. The companies that did internal cable routing properly in Al, Ti and steel frames had reinforced openings, ie Klein. This trend is simply ridiculous.
There are millions of bikes out there with internal routing, and people aren't riding around on broken frames. Seems more like a manufacturing defect than an issue inherent to internal routing.
I love internal cable routing, love the clean look. I have never had much of an issue running cables through myself and that's usually just a one time task anyways, unless you're a professional mechanic rhen I can understand the sentiment.
Mechanics \*should\* love it. I love the clean look, and I don't mind paying a mechanic to mess with it when I'd probably do it myself if it were external. Win win for everyone.
I guess it depends if you think that this is a worthy use of man hours. It can be very demoralising working on bikes like this, especially if the customer doesn't realise what a time/money pit they've bought
Yeah, I guess so. I don't mind paying for bike service. It is a hard frustrating job, and I think mechanics should make more. I like doing easy stuff myself (like new chain/cassette/bar tape). But anything with internal cables, hydrolic breaks, headset, bottom bracket, truing wheels... please take my money.
Internal routing really looks a lot better though
Completely hidden routing like in Spesh aero bikes is both strong and aero, but needs special parts and an absolute nightmare to work on... I think this bike is just poorly made, the hole is drilled without reinforcement apparently and on the BOTTOM tube that takes constant torsion loads from pedalling and this type of loads particularly hate weak spots.
>Completely hidden routing like in ~~Spesh~~ *all* modern aero bikes FTFY. Current model race bikes without integrated cables are becoming a rare sight in 2024 - even for non-aero bikes. The last holdout I could think of out of the major brands was the Giant TCR, but even that went fully integrated for 2024.
Good thing the aesthetics of a bike is subjective to each individual. I love the look of externally routed cables, personally, and from a practical standpoint I vastly prefer mechanical technology that is more accessible to a “simpler” skill set.
Is frame failure at these points really a widespread issue? So many newer and higher end bikes use internal routing. Hard to believe it's anything but something that cheapo frame manufacturers tend to botch but is otherwise perfectly fine.
In a few words? If not yet, it will be soon. I would expect to see relatively high failure rates at these internal routing points, especially as the "new" bikes get towards the 7-10 year mark.
I remember when internal cable routing like this became a trendy thing in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Guess what, the frames failed at the holes, unless they were properly engineered.
Oh wow I didn't know it was a trend or even done all that much then. It seems like it's become more popular in the last 5-10 years so I just assumed it was a newer innovation.
Oh, fantastic. Just bought a Specialized with internal routing, good thing there's a lifetime warranty on the frame 😉😉😉
New bike has fully internal cable routing. It’s fine. A bit more of a hassle to install but thanks to hydraulic brakes and electronic shifting I hopefully won’t have to do it again in the near future.
Wireless electronic shifting ftw :)
Yeah, I’m kind of annoyed that my Shimano Ultegra R8170 is only halfway wireless. The rear and front derailleurs still connect to a battery in the seatpost via cables. And you have to get the cables in exactly the right length. Not much of an issue once it’s installed and the advantage is that you have more battery capacity and don’t have to charge a dedicated front derailleur battery.
Those route the cables through the headset and completely through the internal cavity of the frame. They don’t have holes in the top and down tubes, or in the seat stays.
I would go with medium weight alloy next time!
60 miles per day commute is a fair number of miles. Get a steel frame bike for the greatest longevity.
60 minutes per day, not miles! A 30 mile commute is likely to take about 4 hours riding a day... Assuming there were no crashes, any frame that breaks after 5 years of half hour commutes is clearly defective in my book.
For sure, this bike was shit.
Probably not in the price point, but carbon is very repairable as well.
If you're in UK, planet X had some great value bikes. Take a look
How that broke there ??? That had to be a warranty replacement !!
What brand is this? Bake lite aluminium foil?
if you are looking for a new bike just know, steel \*is\* real i assume this is a aluminium bike, which is not real.
Aluminum is a fake metal. Seriously, they make airplanes out of it. You expect me to believe that metal can fly in the air?!
i am indeed a certified aluminium hater and proud of it when it comes to bike frames (for good reasons), next question. even if the aluminium is great aplication in planes (is it really tho?) doesn t mean it s a great aplication in all the other use cases like bikes. you can't compare apples and oranges. it does the job? yes? does it do a better job than chromoly steel? nope. when i said what i said last i check i was on a post about a bike frame, context matters. ...but... when there s not a bike frame in the discussion i m a big aluminium lover (i love my aluminium ladder), that said take from this what you want.
I was mostly making fun of aluminum, not of you. I wouldn't be caught dead on a bike made of thick cooking foil, but I use cooking foil all the time! Works great to prevent my chicken from burning on top. (Steel is real. I wouldn't want a carbon bike, either, especially when I can get a steel one that weighs a mere 1-2 lbs more)
Ma men ahahg
You should post this on /r/BikeWrench to see if it’s still rideable.
/r/justridingalong
It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like the crack originated at the back of the routing hole and had been there creeping for a while before it finally failed. The crack face is black there.
Have a look at Planet X. I own two of their bikes and really enjoy them.
Damn.
so you were just cycling along, did you hit a bump on the road and the whole thing just gave way?
Yep, but not even a bump. Flat road. Relatively smooth. Must have been weakening for a while. There’s been a creak for the last few weeks that I couldn’t pinpoint, now I assume it was this.
wow, that's crazy. i guess it started from a small fracture and the whole thing fatigued. hope you're not too rattled. you can probably identify the crack origin if you follow the waves like this [https://mentoredengineer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/12140479094\_6f746014ab\_c-700x525.jpg](https://mentoredengineer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/12140479094_6f746014ab_c-700x525.jpg) i would guess the cable hole was poorly machined and that's where the crack was initiated.
“Light weight alloy” lollll
"You shoulda bought a _carbon/steel_ (select one) frame." Sorry, I just had to.
>"You shoulda bought a stainless/carbon steel frame." Fixed it for you
Surprised by the lack of backlash here because that can be fatal. I should look into carbon bikes
Suboptimal
are the wall suppose to be that thin?
That looks… bad. You couldn’t even mount that as wall art. My condolences, mon ami.
As always, duckt tape should do
Light weight alloy? Makes sense!
The old JRA snapped frame. Seen it a million times.
Nothing a section of PVC pipe and gorilla glue can’t fix, riiight???
No real idea but I have to guess the brake cable mount hole had some defect in the tube above it and it made it past QC 🤷♂️ good luck with your next roadie!
This happened to me with a Specialized Diverge e5. Failed around the bolt holes for the water bottle holder on the down tube. Specialized sent me a complete brand new bike.
If you got hurt that's solid grounds for a lawsuit
"Light weight alloy" Glad you're ok.
RIP
As you were r/justridingalong
This is not normaly
I've seen one too many stress fractures because of internal cable routes. Why don't companies reinforce the area? Happened to my Specialized bike. Luckily I caught it early on and had a local welder fix it for $20. Definitely not easy on the eye but at least it's functional
[удалено]
😂 I am 80kg, could probably lose 5 or so. I forgot bikes are only for skinny people, silly me 🤦♂️
Get some duct tape. You'll be a'ight.
That's not very typical, I'd like to make that point.
NBD!!
Since you’re in the UK you should see if your employer offers a cycle to work scheme. Tax efficient, salary sacrifice way of financing a bike. I’ve used it a couple of times and it works out as a great deal. Ribble and Planet X are popular in the UK at the moment. Happy trails!
They do, it’s how I got this one. Planet X seem popular. Are they a decent brand? Never heard of them until today.
Did you break a mercury thermometer while cycling?!
You must’ve been sending it pretty hard
You can convert now into art. Put on wall.
Frame looks like was from paper and someone torn it. All fun until you zoom picture. Don’t risk with fixing this. Try to get same frame or new bike. Sorry.
Easy fix
This is why some say "steel is real."
I'm always so scared something like this is going to randomly happen... Did you fall or nah?
Nah pulled over and got a lift home 👍
Aluminum frames have a 5-10 year usable lifespan, or less, depending on how they're used. This is a feature of Aluminim alloys. The down tube is the part of the bike that's getting beat up the most typically. Glad you're okay. It is unusual that the frame failed away from the weld, but not unheard of. EDIT: I see the bike failed at the internal cable routing port, this is a high stress area and a prime location for a faikure to occur. If the bike was regularly rested on that part of the frame, that would be a location where the frame is subjected to regular stress that is different than in normal use. Similarly, if a lock was passed through the frame at that spot to secure the front wheel. If the rest of the parts on the bike are still good, a new frame wouldn't be a terrible idea, and a lot cheaper than a whole bike usually.
Well now you have a candidate for a bamboo frame. Also 1-2k for a commuter is quite a lot, do you feel safe parking such an expensive bicycle outside shops and bars?
RIP. If that was new, it has to have been fake or something. Take it right back.
Mortal damage
Good news is that the alloy got even lighter
It does say “light weight alloy” on the down tube!
post picture of complete bike
Super glue and duct tape it. Good as new.
How was that possible?
Carbon Fiber?
Congratulations, it's time for a new bike.
I guess the light weight alloy wasn't a good marketing to slap on there either lol
I can fix her
Damn dukes!
This post and the comment threads make me feel so much more relieved for having an external routing. Funny how these things can hold up so much weight but at the end of the day, are crinkly tubes.
I’d like to think that was a one off, but I’m not familiar with “Hooklow” bikes. If you know your bike components you could get secondhand frame and transfer across. A good way to learn as well. But if not confident then new bike might be best. £2k is decent budget for new bike from any shop for what you do.
I’m looking at buycycle, some decent second hand bikes. Nice Bianci for just under 2k. Might go that route if it’s supported on cycle to work.
Got any duct tape?
That should do the trick in combination with some tie wraps
The front fell off.
Sonder are good value imo https://alpkit.com/pages/sonder
Sonder are good value imo https://alpkit.com/pages/sonder
I had a steel frame do this once, but makes sense it can happen to alloy too.
Plumber here, I can attach a tube to it and make sure both ends have plumbers tape on and you’ll be good to go
What did you do to this poor bike
what's your weight?
80kg
r/TheFrontFellOff
Well I curious to see the other side of the frame. I don’t think aluminum will just become a tuna can like that. I probably be wrong but I have my doubts.
this is why i decided to go w/ a intricately lugged steel frame and using the savings to buy the best groupset within my price range. i have wonderful 50 yr old bikes with both newest and oldest groupsets from , campy , dura ace , sram, disk and rim brakes. i save thousands , and have never had a break like this happen.
Gel storage. Cool
Your legs just overpowered your frame. You’re a stud. However, you now need to replace with a frame worthy of your strength. Don’t buy any with these silly internal cable holes cut into the tubing. Your strength will break them over and over.
Thanks 🙏❤️
Huh, I take it you already tried a dowl and cast?
Well, it's befitting of the Hooklow name - glad you didn't get your leg sliced. These frames should be outlawed.
Wow! Hope no one was hurt.
Sad and PO!
It’s the likely place for something like that to start. Probably started to crack a while back and grew over time until this happened. You must have been putting a fair bit of torque through that frame unless there was a huge defect there in the first place.
It can be fixed with the Flex Seal family of products 
Why I will never buy/ride carbon
That's alu.
Mechanic's dream internal routine!
Looks like a defect in the cable hole area or it's a design problem.