As mentioned on another thread I’m slowly building this thing up:

I now find myself mulling over the question of bottle cages and how wise it might be to drill the down and/or seat tube to pop M5 rivnuts in.

There’s lots of clamp/ziptie/jubilee clip on options but I already own the tool and bosses would be much neater. My only concerns are of course structural give the age of the frame…

Advise me hive mind…

I had my Solaris done (by the chap from Swarf cycles, highly recommended by the way)
I contacted Cotic first. They said it was OK to add bottlecage mounts to the seat tube buy not to add crud catcher mounts to the downtube as that is under more stress.
However, given the age of yours I suspect it won’t have been made to the same tolerances as a modern Solaris,more likely a bit overbuilt. Butted or plain gauge?
I would be tempted to go for it

What tubing is it? 531 will be just as thin as modern tubing.

Neither tube is likely to be heavily corroded in the locations you’ll be drilling. Seat tube will be pretty safe in terms of any eventual failure will be slow cracking. Silver soldering would be best but that trashes the paint.

I’ve not got it in front of me right now but it ain’t Reynolds, IIRC it’s some Raleigh own brand sticker on the seat tube for what is essentially a cheap Hi-tensile steel.

It’s from about the early to mid 1970s, and doesn’t feel very butted.
It’s definitely done a fair bit of rusting already… It did only cost me a tenner, we’re not talking about a classic here, the paint is already knackered so not a worry.

God yes, It’ll be fine, get on with it man

I’d have no concerns drilling it, but make sure you have sharp drill bits and drill a round hole (sounds daft but easy to drill a not quite round hole in thin materials)
Sorry if that’s teaching you to such eggs

nothing to add other than “rivnuting” sounds like it should be on Autumnwatch

God yes, It’ll be fine, get on with it man

That’s the sort of endorsement I was after.
I’ll probably apply the drill this weekend then.

Would suggest steel rivnuts not aluminium if possible, or coating the contact surfaces with epoxy then using the setting tool if you have to use the alloy ones for some reason. Once the epoxy hardens combined with the mechanical fastening they should be bomb proof.

Yep I’ve got some zinc coated ones and Al if I need them.

Dunno about adding Epoxy, I’ve seen it suggested elsewhere but rivnuts grip by friction, surely all Epoxy will do is break up over time with stress and flexing.

@cookeaa – Trade off versus dissimilar metal corrosion though, shouldn’t fret away really but fill the gaps. If applied when wet the rivnut should still bite in pretty well.

Epoxy is never going to prevent contact/corrosion, it’s far better to use the right material hence I’ll be using steel.

Measure 17 times and use a good punch unlike me to avoid having it just slightly off central which led to a slightly squint cage and a very annoyed TJ
Arggghhhhhhhhhh

I’m now debating other bosses, a mudguard one in the chainstay bridge, an extra set of bosses under the downtube, maybe something to retain a pump…

@andrewh, any chance of some details on that? I’ve been considering doing that to my mk1 solaris to lose the ugly zip tie mounts that have been there for years

How much did it cost to get ‘just get it done’?

Not a lot to say really. I asked on here for someone in Edinburgh who could do it, he came up as he’s in Peebles, which is about as far as Edinburgh for me.
I stripped the big stuff off the frame, wheels, forks, cranks, you can leave headset, BB, etc in it, and marked where I wanted the mounts putting.
I gave it to him and collected it a couple of days later. That was three years ago I think, been used lots since and absolutely no problems whatsoever.
They came back as bare metal with a small (1in across?) area of paintwork damage around them. I did it with a bit of car primer and some touch-up paint.
He only charged me £20 too.

Mine’s a MK1 too BTW.
Nonidea why Cotic didn’t just fit some themselves, seems an odd ommission. Other than that the frame is bang on for what I want.
Going to get my X done next, that’s got two on the downtube and non eon the seat tube for some reason, but three bottles on a gravel bike would be useful

And if yours is the green one I’ve got loads of paint left

Thanks- mine is blue and I have some touch up paint somewhere.

I vaguely recall them not putting mounts on the seat tube to allow the post to be pushed all the way down/use a long dropper.

I think the X the was set up like that for cyclocross shouldering- I like it as a setup on my SolarisMax, got a small frame bag to fit too at some point for snacks for all day rides.

Ah, makes sense.
I’ve got a medium with a 120mm Thomson dropper and have had no problems at all with it.
The thing with the X is odd though, just because there’s mounts there doesn’t mean you have to put a bottle on them, if you are going to shoulder it a lot don’t, but it would be useful to have the option.
My Roadrat came with though. Yes, I’m proper Cotic fanboy.
.
Sorry OP, we’ve taken over your thread!

I have a roadrat too. Used to be Northwind’s actually. It’s got tatty enough I’m thinking about respraying it something that isn’t poo espresso brown.

Another option actually in Edinburgh would be Armour Custom Bicycles. Very approachable, never had any work done (yet) but have them lined up to do some work eventually.

http://armourcustombicycles.com/