FRAME SAFETY,

QUESTIONS ABOUT FRAME SAFETY

Posted August 24th 2005

A guy happened by the house and saw the bike today, no one special, just a bike fan. He asked what kind of frame I had, and I couldn’t answer. I contacted the guys on hondachopper.com and asked them. Some one was bound to know, and all of these guys are great.

Unfortunately for me one guy noticed something about the frame, then another guy, then another guy. They suspected the frame was poorly welded on the neck. Their fear was that the bike was unsafe because of it, and that it may need to be re-welded. I have attached a bit of the conversation below, with their permission.

longshadoww; I have to agree with Toecutter.I'm not a welder, nor do I have expeirence. Not trying to bash your frame but welding don't look quite right.

gulkerr (Me), You guys are freaking me out. How do I find out for sure if they are ok?

Sawsall ; The following I say is not to hurt, but to keep you from hurting yourself:
I don't think it is the DLG... Unless someone cut it up and put it back together...
1. DLG did better welding than that. That thing needs to have them cool mig welds ground out and redone...
2. DLG had a cross tube between the front mounts, your'd does not.
3. The down tubes came off the backbone & the neck was attached to a piece coming off the downtubes, sort of goose neck looking... You frame, the down tubes are attached directly to the bottom of the neck...
Your frame also looks as though it was poorly changed from it's original configuration from the looks of the additional neck supports and that weld right behind the neck gusset on the top tube is the worst place to put a weld... unless it is there because the weak thing broke before...
Your frame is cool, but the welds need redone and it needs a tube from the backbone to the downtubes or it will break...
Additionally, it needs cut apart at that weld to see if slugged, if not, it needs it...
And I would cut all that crap out of the neck area and redo it... I'd box it in...
Sorry!

gulkerr (Me), Don;t think I'm not extremely greatful that you guys spotted this, I am. It just fingures, you know. I looked around the neck, and the welds are about 1/4" beeds with no breaks. It looks sold but I'm no expert. I'll try to call some on out to look it over before tearing it down...

It makes no sense to tear the bike down at this point. There may not be anything wrong, says the guy Murphy continues to kick, just for fun.

The plan right now is to have someone, a welder, look at the welds and make sure they are safe. If they say it needs to be re-welded, then I will begin tearing this bitch down AGAIN. And if it is unsafe I have to thank Sawsall, ToeCutter66, and Longshadoww, for looking out for me. I told you these guys were good.

This is something you’re going to have to have looked at as well, especially if you bought the frame and didn’t weld it yourself. The draw back of buying an old biker’s project is not knowing if the old biker knew more or less about the bike than he/she should have.

I suggest having a pro look it over before you buy it, but lets face it, so time these purchases are impulse, or even a once in a life time opportunity. I’ve been there, hell I’m still there more often than I want to be. After all most things can be fixed.

I would have never caught that on my own. Thank the Gods for the guys at hondachopper.com Community, or I might have found out via a face full of asphalt.