Is this fixable? Cracked 531 headset tube

Hello

I have a Reynolds 531 frame with a serious crack in the headset tube. It was a bit rusty around the butting when I got the frame but it seemed sound enough for about a year, however a fall a few weeks ago seems to have done for it. It looks like the whole tube is a write-off as it seems to have bent around the crack. I have emailed Donhou to see if he can weld it but the phone number on his site isn't working any more so don't know if I'll hear back.

Here are some pics.

I'd appreciate any advice as to whether this is practically fixable, and if so any ideas as to who might be able to do it for me.

You could get the head tube (and probably lugs too) replaced. Won't be cheap though. Oak Cycles charge £130, and you'd need paint after that.

Steel frames are almost always fixable, it all depends on how much the frame is worth to you and what you are prepared to pay.

If that's happened to the head tube, just think what the other tubes could be looking like on the inside?

From the looks of it, not worth repairing.

It can't be worth £130. Yep, donate to be a ghost bike or someone who wants broken frames for mutant bike projects. Or make an artwork out of it. I saw a lot of old bikes in Normandy during a popular amateur tour there had been turned into plant-laden garden ornaments. Or just chuck it in the canal.

One or more of the above suggestions may be bollocks.

What size is it? B0N0R needs a downtube for a 57 or 58cm Raleigh...

Many thanks for your replies, much appreciated. I've emailed Oak Cycles, nothing yet but early days.

£130 + does seem like throwing good money after bad, but apparently despite modern industrial processes, global trade and China, its still not possible to buy a decent but still pretty basic steel bike frame for less than £300. I'd probably have to pay at least £130 for another Reynolds off eBay these days.
My broken ribs are all mended, and its getting hot so I can't handle the tube much longer, I need to get back on a bike.
Trying to talk myself into maybe a Condor Potenza or TokyoFixed Dart frame.
As it is though I need a new helmet (split nearly in two on impact), new bar tape, will need a wheel trueing, and probably brake levers too. Buying a whole new bike might well be the only option, although it won't have quite the same feeling as riding one I built myself...

TM I think its a 55cm.

This is what it looked like when I built it, you can see why I'm reluctant to part with it.

It is a crudely made lower end raleigh. Might look super rad but does not make sense economically to get the work done, which is very much possible. Cheap raleighs break easily in a number of places, including dropouts and bent forks. Really wouldn't bother.

Find a better frame, spend £50 on some fun paint scheme.

Buying a whole new bike might well be the only option, although it won't have quite the same feeling as riding one I built myself...

+1

I have been thinking about this since I found that my (alluminium) frame was damaged and unrepairable.

I did think about getting a steel frame in order that it be repairable, but you are looking at £200-£250 for a repair by the time you've repainted (at a minimum), and as you have found a decent steel frame is only slightly more than that.

What sort of budget do you have?

Hello

I have a Reynolds 531 frame with a serious crack in the headset tube. It was a bit rusty around the butting when I got the frame but it seemed sound enough for about a year, however a fall a few weeks ago seems to have done for it. It looks like the whole tube is a write-off as it seems to have bent around the crack. I have emailed Donhou to see if he can weld it but the phone number on his site isn't working any more so don't know if I'll hear back.

Here are some pics.

I'd appreciate any advice as to whether this is practically fixable, and if so any ideas as to who might be able to do it for me.
That'll buff out.

Duct tape.

Or a plaster.

Maybe it'll heal.

Blighty,
How did it happen?

Pedestrian in the cycle lane.

I'd just come up onto the bit of cycle path that is on the pavement at the eastern end of Hyde Park. No-one else about, I'd left work early so it was about 5pm. Going uphill so not very fast, 10mph tops. It was raining.
But what's this? Ahead of me there is a man in the cycle lane, walking towards me. I coast towards him. I look at him. He looks at me. He doesn't move. He's maybe 20 metres or so away, so I gently swerve out of the cycle lane. At which point he seems to realize, and steps out of the cycle lane and right back in front of me again.
Now I'm out of options, so with only 4 or 5 metres between us I haul over but the white line is high having been painted many times, and it is greasy in the rain, and down I go sideways. Two broken ribs, bruise the size of dinner plate on my inner thigh from the top tube, still have a lump in my left calf from the pedal.
He was probably a tourist, he did stop to see if I was OK and what was I going to say, I let him go on his way. Cracking service from the NHS at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital by the way, in and out and codeined to the eyeballs within an hour and a half.

I only took one day off work, to be honest I'm more annoyed about the frame, I love the hideous bright pink rusty bastard.

Well many thanks for all your advice, I've bought a new old frame now.

I have potentially found a source for the repair for "lower value" damaged steel and Al. frames; i.e. those that do not warrant frame builders' rebuilding half of the triangle for large ££ notes.

I have given them one of each to fix and await the results.
Carbon is also looking possible, so a mule for test would be good...

These guys have between them a Century or so of experience; they currently are rebuilding vintage aircraft.

Was carbon fibre used extensively in the Sopwith Camel and Gloucester Gladiator?

In as much as wood is a type of carbon fibre yes it was

Let us know how it goes please, will still get this frame fixed if its economically viable.

Was carbon fibre used extensively in the Sopwith Camel and Gloucester Gladiator?

No, it wasn't used extensively or indeed in any capacity.