Bike Gone Bust? Get it Fixed… Right

With the cost of bikes showing no sign of decline, many riders can’t afford to upgrade or purchase a new ride. This is especially the true for those of us who have an aluminum rig in the garage that has suffered a frame failure. For the most part a bike with a cracked or failed frame that is out of, or not covered by the manufacturer’s original warranty is worthless, and getting a new replacement from the bike shop for most simply isn’t an option.This means that you either hang up your gear or get the frame fixed. The trick to having the frame repaired though is that it must be done properly. Having Uncle Jim weld it together for you in his backyard workshop with his stick welder won’t do. This results in a potentially dangerous repair that is sure to fail the next time that you subject the bike to any kind of real riding stress.

Like Uncle Jim most people don’t actually have the knowledge or equipment needed to repair your bike to factory specs, and when you do find a shop that has proper facilities be prepared to pay an arm and a leg, that is if they even have time for you.

Enter Pyrotek with their subsidiary, Pyrobike. They are an ISO 9002 certified firm that has been in business for 10 years specializing in the heat treating of alloys for customers in the high liability aerospace industry to the bike industry and everything in between. Their credentials read like the Encyclopedia Britannica, with approvals to heat treat components for the Boeing 747 and C-17, the F-18, and they are the West Coast heat treating “house” for Spar Aviation. Projects have ranged from the heat treating of competition sailboat pieces to the treating of parts for the recently launched Mobile Servicing Platform, a key productivity component for the International Space Station, a job that Pyrotek president Ted Croft is clearly proud of.


Ted and crew have “written the book” on heat treating alloys where other’s procedures have met with failure. Even in the cases where alloys have been developed that supposedly don’t need treating, Pyrotek has found ways to make them stronger and more resistant to fatigue.

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Bikes and bike parts are not new to Pyrotek’s shop floor. They have treated approximately 55,000 frames of various brands over the last decade, including one-off prototype bikes. Manufacturers such as Raceface and Yess trust Pyrotek to treat their goods and when Syncros was the name of the game in components, Pyrotek were the answer for their heat treating needs, with roughly 355,000 parts passing through the doors.

Lofty high capital, large production runs aren’t the only jobs these guys are about. With the technical know-how to properly repair today’s expensive aluminum alloy framesets, Ted has launched Pyrobike. This is the first company of its kind to offer the repair of failed frames for the biking market on a per case basis, allowing an individual bike owner to get a truly qualified repair.

Frame repair and heat treating is a complex process, and its steps require a precise discipline. The first and most important step is to determine the alloy from which the bike is made.

Determining

the alloy of the material is critical because each alloy has its own unique set of designated parameters that govern the repair of the damage. Surface appearance doesn’t reveal the story; to tell the true properties and composition of the material in question an electrical conductivity, or E.C. meter is used. By passing a current through the alloy its ability to conduct is measured and because each alloy has its own conductive value, its nature is shown. The most common alloys found in higher end bike frames and components are in the aluminum family, namely 6061, 7005, 6013, though in some cases scandium is employed. Pyrobike works with all of these alloys.


Once the alloy has been established, the frame can be stripped of paint and the cracked area repaired. This involves cleaning the weld area, welding the crack, and if requested by the customer, strengthening of the frame with gussets. For this, Ted has enlisted Pat Dion of Dion Custom Bikes, to make sure that the work is done right.

Welding anneals the material and can reduce strength around the “weld zone” by up to two thirds. The heat treating process brings the repair back to the strength that it had prior to failure, so the crack won’t repeat adjacent to the weld, which is almost always the case with an untreated repair. Solution heat treating is important first step for this reason.

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Solution heat treating is the treating of the alloy in an air furnace at a given temperature for a specific duration, setting the chemical bond of the alloy into solution. The temperature must be closely observed, as tolerances must be held to within plus or minus 10 degrees fahrenheit. Once this has been done the frame is rapidly quenched in a medium that is specific to the alloy. This may be forced air, water, or water with other chemical constituents. This causes the molecules in their saturated state to “lock up”, leaving the material in a soft condition that allows the technician to check trueness and if need be, align the frame.

Finally the frame undergoes precipitation age hardening, a low temperature process that takes from 8 to 12 hours, this sets the material back to its original strength. To make sure that the repair has been made correctly the frame’s temper is checked with a Rockwell hardness tester and its conductivity again with the E.C. meter.

The customer can choose to have the bike sent back unfinished, or if they choose for an additional charge, Pyrobike will have the bike custom "wet painted" under the care of non other than Paul Brodie.

Depending on the alloy type and the nature of the damage, Pyrobike can have your bike repaired (without paint) and sent back to you in a one week turn around for about $200 to $300 Canadian. Many bike shops in B.C.’s Lower Mainland are currently offering Pyrobike’s service through their stores, making it a hassle free way to have your bike stripped, sent out, repaired and rebuilt ready to ride. In addition to their frame repair service, Pyrobike can also set up small production run heat treating packages for those who have designed a frame or components.

If your local bike shop doesn’t offer Pyrobike’s service, contact them directly through their website , or call (604) 859-4484, toll free 1-877-859-4484 . For a quote prior to arranging repair, e-mail a digital picture to Pyrobike.

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