My frame (which you may have seen in another thread) has been over clamped by the bike shop and now there’s a bit of square tube on my seat tube. Not happy to say the least but I think I might be able to repair it. Does the hive mind have any ideas past the removal of the tube and replacement?

Other ideas that I had were sleeve the squared tube with an outer steel sleeve then braze/weld that in or cut the offending section out and do similar.

Anyone else have any decent ideas?

New frame courtesy of amateur bike shop?

How did they explain that?

New frame courtesy of amateur bike shop.

I wouldn’t have the first clue, but was it this one??

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/so-i-built-a-thing-completed-frame-content

That very frame. Inbetween seat botle bosses, needed to hold it somewhere to ream the seat post, now is shaped like a negativenof a work stand clamp.

Depends what the frame is made of and how bad it is. You may be able to use some frame blocks to squeeze it out. As above, need pictures…

DP

ah, gutted

Ah Max, that is properly shit. Are they paying to repair it?

My frame (which you may have seen in another thread) has been over clamped by the bike shop and now there’s a bit of square tube on my seat tube. Not happy to say the least but I think I might be able to repair it. Does the hive mind have any ideas past the removal of the tube and replacement?

Erm…why is this even a question? They damaged it, they replace it.

Or am I missing something?

You are, the OP built it.

Gutted for you OP!

Mike, they are being really good about it, mechanic was visibly upset and the manager was willing to do anything really. They have offered to pay for any repair nessecary, hence why I am asking for options really, not sure how much of an involved repair I can get away with.

Its too far for tube blocks, it was 34.1m. Round and is now ~30mm square. Edit: over 75-100mm

GET A NEW FRAME.

It’s steel. Could it be reformed with a big bar and lube down the seat tube ? Mandrell (steel not monkey) style?

Terrible 🙁

new frame, no question about it. My LBS crushed the connection on my reverb – they fitted new reverb. TBH I never saw the damaged one, they just replaced it

Again, the really significant part that people are missing is that the OP built the frame, from scratch.

Neil, as its my first ever frame ive built id like to salvage it asuch as possible.

Brant, thatbwas plan #1, but its past the bottle boss and butted to 0,5mm at that point (from 1.5) so would lilely not do a lot even if it could get past.

Pawsey – perhaps…

Doesn’t matter who built it. Get a new frame then repair/make another one.

Brant, thatbwas plan #1, but its past the bottle boss and butted to 0,5mm at that point (from 1.5) so would lilely not do a lot even if it could get past.

Drill out the bottle bosses? De braze the reinforcements?

Massive PITA. Terrible shame.

Structurally, it won’t affect it – some would claim it was a “feature” 🙂

I guess its not Reverb size though – so that limits seatpost adjustment somewhat eh?

Gutting!!
If you don’t want to remove the whole tube, put frame back in your jig, cut out the damaged part of the frame, cut a new piece of seat tube to fit in the gap you have just created, you now need to find some tube with the same internal dia as your seat tube to make two slip joints. Remove the new seat tube slide the two bits on put the tube back in position and slide the two tubes over the joins and silver solder together. It will be visible but if you do it nice it could be a feature… Maybe!!

Just build a new one whilst its your first your second will be so much more by the time you have made 2000 you wont remember your first

Its time to get pissy when someone smashes the racecars up you lovingly spent designing and building but then there’s a sunny side to that too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBr3-DA0LQk

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPZ-ldJD1kk the crash

You can fixalmost anything

Feel for you cause it’s a beautiful frame you’ve built. My LBS over-tightened a front mech they fitted to my Peregrine and caused a dent which I only found out about 10 months later when I went 1 x 10. Added to my loathing of front mechs.

It’s amazing what can be done with good tube blocks – I’ve got out pretty big dents with them, and as it’s a seat tube can do a lot from the inside as well. I recently got out a 5mm-deep dent in a head tube using an expander from the inside.

Bung it up here if you like and I’ll have a go – worst case it won’t get any worse 😉

What on earth were they doing to do that, though?

New frame courtesy of amateur bike shop.

One of our mechs dented a customer’s fork trying to remove a seized stem. Thecustomer now has a brand new fork and stem, courtesy of us. We woudn’t even dream of trying to fob a customer off with anythng less following a mistake on our part. That a bike shop would even try to, is shameful.

New frame courtesy of amateur bike shop.

And nothing lss.

Such a shame! The frame is a beauty.

I can understand the temptation to repair but would the more sensible thing not be to charge the LBS for the cost of materials and labour that went in to making the frame and use what you learned from the first to make something even more awesome?

A very left field option… not sure if you could cut out the damaged tube and replace with some CF although I suspect this has to be done at an earlier stage of assembly. I’m not sure of the practicalities but Rob English has bonded CF tubes in to his steel builds… could be a new skill to learn to add to the frame building repertoire? There is a Ti example of what I mean below. Could even do all 3 main tubes if you really get carried away. Back in the real world though, this is probably super difficult so charging the LBS for a replacement seems like the best option (if something like Ben Cooper’s approach doesn’t work first) 😕

One thing I don’t get…. What on earth was your frame doing in a bike shop!?

You just built your own frame for gods sake! Surely you do everything else yourself too….no?

My bikes go nowhere neer em and i certainly don’t have your skills

Reamer is expensive to use once I’m guessing

Since the shop have agreed to pay for the repair, I’d take up Ben Cooper’s offer. You’ve done a great job of your build but he has better experience and tools for something like this. It gives you a costed fix; instead of trying to cost your time, you just give the shop Ben’s bill and the carriage costs. It also reduces your risk – if you try something and make it worse, it gets really complex between you and the shop.

I was proposing to do it as a freebie 😉

I was proposing to do it as a freebie

Shhh! You could get a couple of beers out of this.

Ben, I may be taking you up on that offer..

ndthornton – The shop claimed to have a 44mm head tube reamer (Which turns out they dont, even after 3 times being asked!) which is rare at best and the only shop within 100 miles of me that I can find to claim to have one. That reamer alone is £500 (Park tool), tool to use it? £200 (park tool). Tool for cutting and facing the threads? £70-150. Seat tube reamer? £150. I didnt fancy paying near a grand for a single frame.

Im going to have a chat with them today I think and try to sort something out in terms of compensation, who knows how it will work out to be honest!

edit: Piccies

I was proposing to do it as a freebie

Careful Ben, advertising services like that you’ll spend all day fixing home made frames for free, it won’t encourage loyalty etc etc! 😉

A real shame.

I’m with the Ben Cooper option with bike shop to cover all costs.

I’d get them to do that to the rest of the downtube then sell the idea to the ‘top framebuilders’ as some sort of CFD/aero/stress relieved new fangled research. You will undoubtedly make £m’s. My commission is the usual 15% please.

I’d get the shop to pay for a replacement and then take Ben up on his offer to see if it can be salvaged. Plan a and plan b all in one go. HTH 🙂

I think the only thing I would be happy with is unbrazing the seat tube and replacing it with a new one. You can do that and charge them for your time and materials.

Bummer

I guess Ben’s offer is worth a punt. Bonding in a carbon tube would be fun – have you seen the stuff done by Julie Racing Designs? He could maybe help you with glue and a tube?

I’d personally probably just leave it – I guarantee you’ll want to make a new and improved version of the frame in a year anyway 🙂
Just get the shop to fund some nice components to build it up with.

Can’t quite believe the people saying get a new frame…….. I don’t think they realise the hours you’ve invested in this thing, and “another” frame just isn’t the same.

I ream the seat tube using some expanding reamers we have at work (takes ages but can go up in very small cut sizes). I usually hold frame clamped across the flat faces of the bb shell in a vice. Head tube gets done by a trusted shop – must admit they also clamped on the seat tube but asked me first (mine was 28.6mm diameter and 0.8mm wall so unlikely to crush). I bought a cheap Cyclus bb thread tool from Rose bikes and it has been really handy.

I had exactly the same thing happen to my first frame, the frame builder I took it to to ream, face etc claimed that it was so far out of alignment that it wasn’t his fault. This was b*ll, as he checked it over when I dropped it into him.
I ended up replacing the tube (down tube) it was a lugged frame so a real bitch of a job. Ben, I think you contributed to the thread on the velo salon forum. I bodged it and whilst not pretty I have since ridden it for 1500 kms and it’s still holding, but number 2 is approaching completion and I’ll be buying the tools to finish it myself.

In your case, I’d try the tube block approach, the seat tube is less stressed than the down tube in my case and I had a pretty serious crease, which defo wouldn’t pop out.
I learnt a whole load about frame building from replacing that one tube, the most important lesson being to be self sufficient and save for the right tools!