Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

Uber V Bonded swing arm

4K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  Michael Thomas 
#1 · (Edited)
Manged to pick these two cuties up on craigslist $500 for the pair, a hers&his moving day special!!!! The one with the moto 120's stays all stock (it's a peach! ridden twice in its whol e life!!!) but the one with the bonded arm of death is going UBER..ish....see the Fatty M up front still works so I'm just gonna use it until it dies, obviously it needs knobby skins and a new seat but the rear shock kinda sucks and in the end I'd like to go UberV (Thank you Uber addict for all the info!) but one step at a time. my. the question then is....

-Can I get away using the bonded arm? I know they crack and it's bad and then you cry a little...but why not ride it until it goes terminal then upgrade? I mean are they really THAT bad?



Photobucket
 
See less See more
2
#2 ·
I managed to crack one on my super v before but I guess it was because I used some hydraulic rim brakes (maguras).
I rode it hard until I bought a CAAD4...Brake booster, pivot bolt, rear wheel axle, fd clamp and the shockbolt kept it from falling apart......
Only really bad thing about them is that they are real heavy compared to a CAAD4....
 
#3 ·
does anyone have pictures of a damaged one? I've heard the split down the middle and crack at the arch but I've never seen one....perhaps theres a way to fix this and make these usable?
If ANYONE has a damaged one post a pic so I can look it over I don't believe they're a total lost cause.
 
#4 ·
Here you go... got this from an ebay purchase. The rear axle could twist a bit with lack of "bond" connection. There is also a small crack forming next to the front derailleur cable at the sharp angle of side arm. Hate to see it "fail" while riding at speed. As a side note, I purchased a SV in 2000 with bonded rear... Uber V'd it in 2009 and used a full year with no problems. I guess some were bonded better...?
 

Attachments

#5 ·
If they split down the middle I see no harm in TIG welding them back together.
(I know "heat treat blah blah blah," Unless you work in a foundry spare me the opera) Perhaps some did bond better than others,sounds lik ea manufacturing hiccup, but if they're cracking at the flanges as well....those are stress fractures, an inherent design flaw. Not much we can do there...I'm looking at the service bulleting now they crack in a lot of places....
 
#7 · (Edited)
Good magic

well fianly go to look it over, the crack has already started on the upper seam. I can see it spread when I pull the brakes.
Turns out she's a '99 Small... hoping to snag an old set of Moto 100 forks off ebay and then I'll just be slapping a 5th element of fox coil&oil in there.
I talked to a local guy and he said he saw one with a wire from the base to the end of the arm to prevent cracking the dropout back in the day...no word on if it really did anything though.
I'll drill and cross-bolt the upper section and cross my fingers, should that fail it's getting a TIG seam all the way around.

If you have a bonded arm and use V brakes ADD A BOOSTER!!!!!! might not even be a bad idea for disk guys, just a set of spacers and a booster plate for extra rigidity...
 
#8 ·
If anyone has a Bonded arm they are going to scrap I'll pay the price of shipping to get it, I'd like a spare (even a broken one) to use as a testbed for a permanent repair...I think I've got a handle on this.:thumbsup: If this works out I could start saving/rehabbing arms for Uber V's
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top