Dent on a new bicycle frame

[Aivar]

Two weeks ago I bought a new Trek Checkpoint ALR5 bicycle. Bike rides pretty well. It has aluminium frame. I bought it primaraly for bike packing trips as it has ton of mounting points. After riding it for 2 weeks and hitting some easy gravel roads I found two relatively small dents on bicycle's frame. I don't know when I got them. Maybe they are caused by flying rocks from the wheels. Maybe this dent was already there when I bought it. In total I rode around 100 km on gravel trails and the riding wasn't to extreme. Those dents made me a little bit paranoid about the bike's frame strenght, and made me wonder about how the frame will look like after one year. Are these dents normal or they show that bicycle has fragile frame? Can such dents cause problems? I claimed for a warranty. Just asking for your opinions if claim will be denied.

[SPINMAN]

I don't think it should be a problem on aluminum, right? It looks like just a ding. CRO-MOLY and CARBON might be worse

[meamoantonio]

(09-04-2023, 07:00 AM)Aivar Wrote:  Two weeks ago I bought a new Trek Checkpoint ALR5 bicycle. Bike rides pretty well. It has aluminium frame. I bought it primaraly for bike packing trips as it has ton of mounting points. After riding it for 2 weeks and hitting some easy gravel roads I found two relatively small dents on bicycle's frame. I don't know when I got them. Maybe they are caused by flying rocks from the wheels. Maybe this dent was already there when I bought it. In total I rode around 100 km on gravel trails and the riding wasn't to extreme. Those dents made me a little bit paranoid about the bike's frame strenght, and made me wonder about how the frame will look like after one year. Are these dents normal or they show that bicycle has fragile frame? Can such dents cause problems? I claimed for a warranty. Just asking for your opinions if claim will be denied.

Those are common for off road riding, nothing to worry about too much, for aethetics, try adding Bike Skin/Bike Wrap so itll protect the paint job and give another layer of protection.

[Sybian]

(09-04-2023, 03:51 PM)SPINMAN Wrote:  I don't think it should be a problem on aluminum, right? It looks like just a ding. CRO-MOLY and CARBON might be worse

That would not have affected a steel frame unless near a lug or weld. Only issue is if it it was enough impact to bend the tube and affect the frame geometry. I have had steel frames that were like that, but never an issue as to the integrity/strength of the frame when the tube did not get bent.

[froze]

(09-04-2023, 03:51 PM)SPINMAN Wrote:  I don't think it should be a problem on aluminum, right? It looks like just a ding. CRO-MOLY and CARBON might be worse

What?? Cro-Moly would have shrugged it off with nothing but chipped paint; Carbon most of the time will deflect it, on a rare occasion it could put a hole in the carbon (which is why strike tape came out to prevent rocks from damaging the CF); with titanium you wouldn't even get a scratch. But aluminum is a soft metal so dents like that from rocks is entirely possible.

Those dents are small so it's not going to cause any problem with integrity of the frame, a bigger dent probably; Cro-Moly on the other hand even if it got a huge dent, you could still ride it home; CF a huge hole would be a walk back home or to the car; titanium...nothing will happen to hit unless you get hit by a car.