Just picked up this bike—it’s clearly been through some rough treatment. Looks like the previous owner had a seized seatpost and, in a desperate attempt, tried hammering it down.
What’s the best way to bring this beauty back to life? Should I try fully drill out the post, or would it be better to cut and weld in a new seat tube?
by 422627
9 Comments
honestly this thing is cooked…
Gallium. Dissolve the seat post – AS LONG AS the frame is steel.
Even if you can get the seatpost out the seat tube has been damaged – your only option is to have a frame builder replace it – and then it will need paint after.
That’s getting expensive but probably worth it for that bike.
Then grease the new seatpost and remove it once in a while!
There’s no bringing back to life for this frame. She’s dead.
You could theoretically have a frame builder weld a new seat tube into that frame but that seems like a waste of money.
No fixing that the minute you got the grinder out it was toast. There are ways to get stuck posts out and a grinder isn’t one of them it only ever ends in the scrapyard
I would try heat it with a gas torch and heat shock it (heat it and cool the inner alu tube with water). It sometime works. This way (if works) you only need to paint the steel tube as gas torch burns the paint off.
I have had sucess removing the bottom bracket, drilling the drain hole out enough to insert a titanium tube, or stainless steel drift, to hammer the seat post out of the seat tube out from below
The best way to bring it back to life is to sell it to some chump who thinks it can be repaired and then buy a new bike.
Go on a frame building course, so you can rebuild the frame cost-effectively?
Otherwise it’s going in the skip.
(A professional will be able to put new tubes in, but it’ll take weeks for them to have a slot and will be spendy. Only you can decide if it’s, worth it.)