Evening all,

I bought a used Ragley mmmBop off the forums earlier this week. It was described as ‘very good condition’.

It arrived yesterday, and while it is in good general condition, it looks like the previous headset cups were removed with a screwdriver and a hammer, and has left some moderately bad gouges inside the head tube. I’ve uploaded some pics, which can be seen below.

Quite a few of them are sharp and protrude around 1mm from the surface of the inside of the tube. I’m concerned about 2 things – that they may have structuraly weakened the head tube, and that they will be very difficult to remove without changing the diameter or shape of the headtube.

So some collective advice needed. Should I:

A) Send the frame back and ask for a refund
B) Use emery cloth and steel wool to try to remove the burrs
C) Just fit the new headset and hope it squashes out the burrs
D) Do something I haven’t yet thought of…

Oh, and there seems to be a pretty minor ‘ripple dent’ on the down tube – I don’t think this is anything to worry about though.

Cheers,
Kevin

I’d clean it up & use it.
The ripples in the down tube?? That would be a concern to me unless:
A. it is very very minor &
B. It was cheap.

i would apply grease and thump a headset into it
Also depends on what you paid
Agree on ripple being more concerning – pics

I doubt it has weakened the frame significantly. I’d be happy to remove the worst of the burrs and reuse but it is awful butchery to do that.

Downtube would be more worrying to me. Looks like a bodge headset removal/refitting to me, shouldn’t weaken the headtube significantly.

I tried to take a pic of the ripple but it can’t be seen in the picture. It can barely be seen in the flesh (er, metal…), but it can definitely be felt when running a finger across it. 3 small dents spaced around 16mm apart, and each about 5-7mm long. 2 of them around 1mm deep, the last one being a bit shallower. No mark to the paint though, and no signs of anything else…

Thanks for the views on the head tube issue.

Where abouts on the downtube is this ripple?

There’s a possibility it’s ripples in the paint I suppose?

If it’s up next to the head tube, then it’s not good. If it’s not, then it’s not a problem.

head tube will be fine.

dents sound like manufacturing defects…if they aren’t ripples I wouldn’t be worried.

The ripples start around 60-65mm down from the edge of the little gusset between the downtube and the headtube.

Where else on this planet could you ask a question about a frame and have the guy that designed it come along to answer? Even though it was bought 2nd hand? Outstanding.

The downtube is shaped, not round… Is that it?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_il5GpHa7hi8/TFy3zqiLyUI/AAAAAAAAAdw/ifOxoSw9rVg/s1600/DSC_0152.JPG

Where else on this planet could you ask a question about a frame and have the guy that designed it come along to answer? Even though it was bought 2nd hand? Outstanding.

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The downtube is shaped, yes. Looking at that picture you posted, if you look at where the silver cable comes down to the left of the headtube, and where it crosses the bottom of the downtube – just to the left of that on the picture there are little white circles (reflections I presume) – that’s almost exactly the spot where the dents/ripples are. Could it just be a side effect of the hydroforming process?

Sounds like it’s effed to me.