[LuMach]

So, in only my 8th or 9th time riding my newly built ASR, I took a little tumble in a rocky section of trail and after dusting myself off I notice a small dent on my top tube. After cursing some utter filth, I gave it a quick look at on the trail and it didn't seem too bad, rode another 10k or so without any trouble.

Later on at home after wiping everything down and inspecting it under light with a magnifying glass, it still doesn't look too bad (well, it looks sh!tty cosmetically) but I'm no expert. The dent itself is only like 1 millimeter deep, directly on top of the tube, no damage to the sides. There's a small bubble or buckling on top but after close inspection I'm almost positive it's just in the clear coat. Same goes for the cracking you see branching out under "Bred", I looked at this pretty closely and again I'm 99.9 per cent sure it's just in the clear coat.

The worst part is that this is still a new bike so it bugs me deep. I've had P.O.S. bikes that I've ridden for years with barely a scratch then a few rides in on my new sweet-ass Yeti and bang, dent..ughh!

Anyhow, I've included a photo. Would love to get some honest opinions to know if it looks like it'll be alright, or if I'm just in denial and this thing is gonna snap on me next time I hit a root..

 

[chuckb77]

Man that sucks! At least now when you ride it you will be able to really enjoy the ride without having to worry about your new bike being new any longer. It sucks, but I always remind myself that gear is to be used, and no matter how sweet it is, if it's in perfect condition sitting at home, it isn't doing it's job.

I used to snowboard a lot, and always the first day on a new board sitting on a lift one of my buddies would nail my board with his and say "got that out of the way, now you can just ride the damn thing." Sucked, but alas it was true.

I'm no engineer, but I would find it hard to imagine a 1mm dent is going to cause a frame to buckle. You could always take it by a shop for a second opinion though.

 

[LuMach]

Thanks, yeah I'm not too worried about how it looks so much, although I do hate looking down and seeing the dent there

It's just really upsetting to think that I may have caused some serious structural damage so early in the frames life, especially since I was really planning on riding this thing for several years to come.

 

[philipwright0]

LuMach, if it make you feel any better, I'm about to pick up my crash replacement ASR-5 frame after putting a hole in the first one after 3 hours on my first offroad ride. I'm just thinking of this as payback for the 13 years I've been riding and never broken a bike. Then I get my dream bike and bust it immediately :bluefrown: . Your dent looks tiny, so you shouldn't have a problem. I had a rock flick up and smack the downtube of my last bike and it put a dent in it that you could rest your thumb in. It's still going strong, in fact it has been my back-up bike while the Yeti is getting fixed up. I agree with chuckb77, you can't worry about it too much or you won't ride and you might as well hang the bike up as a display piece. When I get my ASR5 back, I'm going to ride it as if I'd never bust it the first time.

Keep riding and earning those scars!

 

[sasquatch2]

you must have some stoney-hard 'nads to dent the top tube like that! I would put a straight edge (like a ruler) across the dent to see just how deep the dent is, I think if it's 1mm then you'll be fine riding it. I had a thumb-sized dent in the down tube near the BB for a while from a kicked up rock and that's NOT what failed in the end. I went with a carbon frame to avoid cracked/dented frames and now I'm in full-on prayer mode! Good luck, and never ride your bike again or it'll get damaged!!!

 

[LuMach]

thanks dudes,

haha I wish I had balls of iron! Well, I've taken it out a couple times since and it's been fine, so I'm slowly regaining my confidence in it. Maybe I wasn't giving Yeti enough credit for building a tough bike, I mean this thing hit the ground hard flipped over in what was essentially a pile of rocks, the damage should have been a lot worse.

 

[spunkmtb]

I shipped my 575 to CA via UPS. It had 5 rides on it. Somehow the down-tube got dented in the shipping. I paid extra for insurance and they denied the claim. Crash replacement was around $400. It sucks but my dent was deeper, on the downtube, and it worried me. I feel for you.