My Merlin Extralight seemed indestructible to me. Well-used and hardly abused. Always kept in tiptop mechanical condition.
It felt squirrelly the last few rides, especially when out-of-the-saddle climbing or cornering.
A couple times, I hopped off to see if I punctured or my rim got tweaked. Very strange feeling.
Decided to swap tires today to see if that would right the ship.
And do my usual thorough cleaning at the same time. Through the years, that habit led to me noticing a few mechanical issues.
Low and behold, my frame cracked in the weirdest spot! Never thought this would occur, even after 60k miles.
Luckily, I held onto a nice 531 1994 Croll steel frameset. Swapped the components over and it rides nicely. Waiting for a 28.6 adapter for the front derailleur.
I took this photos in tight quarters under my back patio. Hopefully it conveys things.
When I first spotted the fracture!
After stripping components off.
After pulling the Croll from mothballs. Nearly perfect swap, except for my 34.9 DA front derailleur needing shims.
30c Vittoria Graphene 2.0's fit okay. Barely in the rear without the vertical dropouts.