Hole in the frame

[mickle]

The quality of that bike was nowhere near the best in the business, the bike had lots of faults, some dangerous. I'll have to take back what I said before. Maybe your son did hammer this bike but maybe not. I've seen one Giant bike with terribly squint rear drop-outs so it's not impossible there are others.

Interesting, and surprising that you had this problem with a Giant. Frame (including rear drop-out) misalignment is a manufacturing issue which should, even if it managed to escape the factory QA, have been picked up during shop assembly and PDI. Even more surprising that it had lots of faults. What were they? Pish poor assembly at shop level I would guess.

 

[Mr Pig]

...a manufacturing issue which should have been picked up during shop assembly and PDI.

And it wasn't a rubbish shop, it was Dales in Glasgow. Like I said, I should have taken it back and I don't know why I didn't. I know what they're like in Dales, they would have taken the bike back no problem.

The most series other fault was the brakes. My son pulled the brakes one day, there was a bang and no front brake. Turned out they had fitted cables with top-hat ends to levers designed for barrel ends, if that's the right terminology, and the end of the cable had just pulled through the bracket!

There were loads of other faults, I can't remember them all. One was that the chain kept comming off the small gear on the cassette and jamming between the gears and frame. I tried everything on that one but it kept doing it. The fact that giant had let such a poor bike be sold to children put me right off them and I'd never buy another Giant bike.

 

[02GF74]

I'm not convinced the frame is bent. RH says it runs centred when pedalled lightly but skews under load. That isn't (necessarily) a bent frame, it's a loose quick-release or completely shot wheel bearings.

I'm not convinved either - the drop outs are buggered - I seen this on a firend really cheap steel fram bike - no matter how hard the rear wheel was done up, a coupl of pedal strokes would pull the drive side out of the drop out so the tyre rubbed on the frame.

I fixed it by making a C shaped bracket that slips over the axle and held at other end by bolts in the lugs for the rack.

 

[hubgearfreak]

I'm not convinved either - the drop outs are buggered - I seen this on a firend really cheap steel fram bike - no matter how hard the rear wheel was done up, a coupl of pedal strokes would pull the drive side out of the drop out so the tyre rubbed on the frame.

was it a 3 speed. ? the washers do give in after a hefty rear shunt. new serrated washers aren't much from a decent LBS.

 

[Globalti]

It's also possible that he's been riding it around with the rear QR loose, meaning that chain tension has pulled the wheel over. Also possibly the wheel is not correctly centred in the frame due to the dish being wrong though that would probabaly not have caused the wear, it might have contributed. Neglected and knackered cup and cone bearings would produce the same effect.

Whatever the reason he should have noticed the loud buzz of the tyre rubbing on the frame. A muddy MTB tyre can go through a frame in remarkable short time especially if it's soft allloy.

I remember when my nephew wrecked his forks at the age of about 10 by smashing his new bike repeatedly into a wall.

From the pics the frame looks quite dirty and neglected - did he ever clean the bike?