bulgie 

Yep, you did the right thing!

I got in trouble once for pointing out a fatigue crack. It was at some organized meet, I forget what but not a race, Seattle-To-Portland or a century or some such. A couple of racers were showing off their racing tandem made by a local framebuilder, and predicting whatever scary-fast time they were about to do the ride in, with a small crowd around them listening, a half dozen or a dozen maybe (this was 40 years ago, forgive the vagueness). I said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "what about this fatigue crack?" The guys riding the tandem were his friends and they were outraged that I would point out the crack in the frame, or at least that I would do it so publicly. OK, it was a bit of a dick move on my part, but the local FB who made the bike was giving all custom FBs a bad name IMHO because his workmanship was so awful. I hardly ever saw one of his frames that didn't have a crack somewhere. I probably should have told them quietly, away from the crowd though.

Another tandem he made was on a Glenn Erickson organized tandem ride I was on, and the captain's pedals started scraping the ground when they guy stood up to pedal. The front seat tube had broken clean off from the BB shell and the frame sagged down opening up a big gap between the tube and the shell. The frame was practically new, too. Capn was a top local racer, had been US National (amateur) Road Race Champion actually, turned pro right after that. Someone who should have known better, Just goes to show ya, being able to ride fast doesn't mean you can tell a bad bike when you see one.

Speaking of people who should know better, this FB got a reputable bike shop to sell his frames, and they made a display that had info about him, like the fact that he'd apprenticed under Bruce Gordon. Except when Bruce himself dropped in for a visit and read that display, he threw fit, yelling for the manager, threatening to sue etc. Turns out BG had never heard of this guy! Ross Shafer was with Bruce at the time, he's the one who told me the story. "Man you shoulda seen him, he was on fire!" or words to that effect. Ross says Bruce showed the shop manager everything that was wrong with the frame they had on display, and it was a long list. The shop owner apologized, took down the display and promised not to sell those frames anymore, no lawsuit needed.

Mark B