Some very basic metalworking / frame repair advice

[Eric Karnes]

Hi all!

The following is a cautionary tale and a request for some basic metalworking advice.

A few months back I found a Rambouillet in my size on Ebay. After some waffling, I decided to purchase it as a bike to keep at my brother’s house so that we could do rides together when I take the train down from Philly to visit. 

The seller found a local shop willing to pack and ship the bike to my brother in Baltimore. Needless to say, when I finally open the box this weekend, it was by far the shittiest bike packing job I’ve ever come across. There was literally no padding whatsoever in the box to protect the frame and parts. So the delicate areas–seatpost clamp, bottom bracket, nor derailleur hanger–were open to banging during shipping. The removed front wheel scraped the top tube pretty badly, but it appears to just be cosmetic. The bigger issue is that the Rivendell seat lug was bent at its point, as you can see in the photo below. So…

(1) This just emphasized how I should stick to only buying bikes and frames from the trusted sellers on this list. This marks the end of my bike-buying on Ebay.

(2) Second, any advice from metalworking aficionados on how to repair this myself? I know I should probably take it to a frame builder, but I’m moderately handy and could maybe save the money and hassle of schlepping it to a professional. That said, I only have experience filing things like rack struts and the like. Any advice on tools or techniques? What files to use and it what order?

Thanks!

Eric

[Danny]

Hi Eric,

Sorry about your bad eBay experience, I've been there before and it's not a good feeling! I've got an eBay-purchased frame currently in for a seat tube crack repair. (Of course I didn't discover the issue until it was too late to take any recourse, live and learn I guess!)

Anyway, there was a recent thread on iBoB covering your very issue with that seat lug point. https://groups.google.com/g/internet-bob/c/7tsuUSA_D7E/m/qCYOA5JaAQAJ

Good luck!

-Danny

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[Steven Sweedler]

Eric, same thing happened to me when I bought my All Rounder, I was able to pry and then  tap the point into place. When I traveled with that bike I always used a wood plug to protect it. Other than the loss of a little paint it was superficial. 

Steven Sweedler
Plymouth, New Hampshire

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[Eric Karnes]

Thank you guys! I'll try the needle nose pliers first and then file as necessary. I like my Rivs with Beausage, so some nail polish and stickers will complete the look. 

Eric

[Peter Adler]

Put some sort of covering on the contact surfaces of the needle nose pliers - leather scraps, or maybe thickish plastic or rubber. The friction ridges on standard needle noses will help with the grip, but at the cost of amping up the paint damage ,and maybe marring the metal itself.

You can also buy needle nose pliers with flat faces, but they're less common, more expensive and less generally useful.

Peter Adler

who's got lots of aluminum bits with little dents in them in

Berkeley, CA

[Greg J]

Eric,

This exact thing happened to me, and I was able to bend the point of the lug back easily.  As I wrote in the thread that someone linked to earlier:  

I started with a small flat blade screwdriver to uncurl the very tip, with thick cloth to protect the metal. Then I used needle nose pliers to bend it back close to parallel with the seat tube. I finished off using a 26.6 seat post to bend it back all the way but not over bending it. Other than missing paint at the tip, which may have been there already for all I know, it’s hard to tell that anything happened with it.

Good luck!

[Bill Lindsay]

"some nail polish and stickers will complete the look. "

Strong endorse.  

On Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at 12:37:13 PM UTC-8 Eric Karnes wrote: