bampilot06

Where the crash occurred is also a strava segment. That’s my only reasoning for what happened.

Lombard

Not necessarily. From my own observations, it's the higher level riders that seem to get into more accidents.

cyclezen

ALU is different from other frame materials, and fracture/fail differently.
Just looking at the 'Dent' image, it is smooth, without any clear/visible cracks. Most of the stress on seat stays is vertical, and if the stay is showing any 'displacement' (bend out of alignment) There's certainly enough material which will support the vertical load. If the frame/stay doesn't experience another hit from the side, it should be fine in normal service.
You could:
Take it to a good frame builder/repair service, have the alignment checked, the dent filled and touchup painted.
or
DIY...
Or
just touchup and ride.
don;t think it will assplode...
FYI, I had a custom Orero crit frame which I went down on in a mass crash at a Big Crit, back in 70's, very skiiny steel seat stays - great bike!
I took it to Ramon and he looked it over, checked alignment, filled the hole (was also cracked/holed thru the stay), repainted/touchup and deemed 'wonderful ', told me to ride it hard.
Which I did, and then passed it on to another, a Junior who needed a good racing frame. Bike never failed (as far as I kept contact with that group)...

Patch it up and you'll know that it's not 'Perfect', but no one else will.
Ride, Enjoy. Once the hammer goes down or you're suffering on a hard climb, you'll forget all about it...
Nice Bike..
Ya, group rides of a competitive nature are always 'iffy'. Sometimes your best efforts of avoidance aren't enough.
Sounds like you mostly made it out physically OK - that's the important thing.
Ride On
Yuri

bampilot06

It might be in my head, but I think it’s already starting to fail. While riding this morning I was looking down at the seat stays and the dented one looked different than the other side. I tried to take a picture but couldn’t get a good angle. I measure the distance between the tire and the chain stay on both sides. The dented side has less room. Not sure if this is by design or because of the crash. Also looking down the outside of the seat stay it now looks like it’s starting to buckle. Other things I mentioned maybe I didn’t notice before, but this is def new. Tried to get some pictures, don’t think they turned out too well.

WizardOfBoz

;tldr I'm an engineer, like Harold74. I agree with him. I'd not be confident about that stay. Then again, I weigh near 250lb (a bit less), so I should be more circumspect than the average bear.

Your tape measure assessment shows about a 1/16 deformation inward. To be a bit more definitive, you might use a straightedge to check the straightness of the tube (it's tapered, so use a straightedge on each seat stay and compare). If that stay is really bent I'd really be a lot more suspicious that it could collapse (the seat stay is in compression, so buckling is the failure mode). Anyway, put a straightedge on the stay on the side opposite the dent. Compare to the straightness on the other stay, measured in the same (that is, mirror image) way. If the damaged stay shows more of a bend than the other stay, I'd really be more likely to avoid riding the thing, at least hard.

It the stays are generally the same straightess, you could apply a fix. It would be ugly but you could "splint" the thing with slightly larger tubing, where the splint id is the size of the frame od. Sand the paint off the stay near the deformation, slit a piece of carbon fiber tube, epoxy it on and apply band clamps to let the epoxy cure.

The anecdotes about steel frames don't really apply much to aluminum. Different beast. Aluminum is much more susceptible to work-hardening so you can't just "bend it back". Aluminum is also difficult because while you can repair a tube by welding in a new tube, you have to heat treat the welds (there is some research into welding fillers that don't require this but...) and this generally means you HT the whole frame, which requires new paint or powdercoat. And you have a hydroformed frame, so it's not just replacing tubing...

I suspect that if you check with Trek, they will take the lawyer's position "Oh! That's unsafe! There's no way you should ride that frame!". But they might give you a good deal on a replacement frame. Good luck.

choddo

From the photo alone, pretty rough science, that looks fairly straight

smd4

We certainly don't know that it shows "deformation" of the stay. Based on the relationship of the tire to the seat tube, the photos may actually just show that the wheel isn't centered or is improperly dished.

bampilot06

Through axle and the wheels were just tru. Why wouldn’t it be centered?

How else would you measure then? I’m going to start documenting this each day to see if the distance continues to get smaller. I can hold a straight edge up to it with a wheel off, but I don’t see how I could really measure that.

If I push on the seat stay the dented side flex’s more than the non drive side. Not sure if my design or again the a result from the crash.

smd4

I have no idea. All I have to go on are your photos--which show the tire itself is not centered on the seat tube--by what appears to be the exact amount you think the stay was pushed in.

bampilot06

hmmmmm. I’ll have to go back and check. Thanks.

bampilot06

Determined the wheel is out of dish, and I just went over the whole chain stay with the wheel off and using a piece of rope as a straight edge, it doesn’t appear to be bent. So disregard my previous attempt at trying to document the chain stay giving way. Thanks Smd4 for noticing the wheel issue.

smd4

WizardOfBoz

Yup, this is fair enough. Hence my suggestion to use a straightedge to compare the straightness of each stay. But I guess you could also say that the frame was hydroformed to be asymmetric, too. Hmmmm.