Touring - The agony...

I am posting this here, beause I have some concern about my frame's strength, and I think touring folk would know the issues related to strength.

I have spent the past several months slowly figuring out what I wanted to do to finalize my 1989 Cannondale touring bike for riding in charity rides etc.

It is a 56 cm frame with 27" wheels, a Suntour X-1 RD and Shimano Deore DX FD and has a black frame

Some of the updates/chages...
Brooks B17, Nitto Technomic Stem, Nitto Randoneur bars, Kelly Take Offs, Cane Creek brake levers, Nashbar Interruptor bars, Cateye Astrale computer, Continental Ultra Sport 1 & 1/4 tires.

Today was the maiden voyage, and as I start riding, I realize that there is a sound of something rubbing, and after checking the brakes, I came to discover that the rear wheel was rubbing the chain stay.

BTW - the shifting needs some tweaking, but other than that, and the rubbing, I am very happy with the results.

I terminated my test ride, and took the bike to the LBS for an opinion about whether the wheel was dished improperly, or if something else needs attention. The owner took a quick look and noticed that the wheel was centered properly between the seat stays, but not the chain stays, so the rear triangle is tweaked.

I now have a bike that is perfectly good except for the rear trianle alignment on an aluminum frame. :(

After a quick experiment we discovered that the problem can be dealt with (although not ideally) by not seating the left side of the axle completely in the dropout.

I need advice... I weigh about 300 pounds, which is why I decided on a touring bike... If I glue something in the drop out to keep the axle from seating so deeply, the mechanic and I think this will be ridable for some period of time until I lose enough weight to get a road bike...

Any opinions on the wisdom of this? This will only be about 1/8 inch, just enough to keep the tire from rubbing...

If this isn't reasonable, does anyone know a source for inexpensive touring frames that will take 27" wheels and the rest of my components from the old Cannondale?

Should I just write off what I have done so far and buy a new bike?

If you had a perfect bike and the only thing wrong was that the dropouts were not perfect, somehow one side wasn't deep enough, and rather than file it, you decided to put a spacer in, I wouldn't have any worries. I don't really have any worries about what you are suggesting either just so long as you are not enabling a problem that is more otherwise serious. But you have taken it to your LBS, they haven not spoted any welds failing, serious dents, or cracks. They feel this is a reasonable adjustment to the frame and, when you ride it, you find it rides well, with what must be some uneveness in the stays, I don't think you will have a problem. Don't trust you bike shop alone. Look at the rear end, inspect al lthe welds, inspect all the tube, and attached frame parts. Check the alignment of the wheel with the spacer in place, check all the paint, then if it rides well, I wouldn't worry.

Back when all road bikes seemed to have horizontal drops, we adjusted all rear wheels by eye, and probably at times had minor erors in alignment we didn't know about.

300 pound is not so bad on a Canondale. They are rugged bikes and there are a few guys aorund here who ride them with that amount of weight given camping gear of 40 -60 pounds.

I'm 280 and just avoid aluminum in a rigid bike.
We stress our bikes much more than light people and tend to put a lot more torque on the pedals which causes wheel problems and frame problems.
I'd avoid any damaged aluminum frame as a clyde. If this bike is steel, it might take more stress.
Me? I'd recommend just starting anew. For you, a surly LHT would be perfect as you can transfer some parts. You can also do a trek 520. I'd watch the wheels on the 520 closely, and build good wheels for the LHT with as many spokes as you can get (I run a 48 hole clyde with a tandem XT hub with a shortened axle)

I agree with you. The whole question is whether the frame is damaged. The fact that the frame has misaligned parts is not to say tubes or joints have been damaged. If there really is damged it should show up under inspection.

I don't really agree about aluminum frames. Aluminum now suffers from a low end of the market reputation, that apparently even cheap eastern steel frames now trump. That isn't Canondale's reputation.

You might be right about heavy people. There are a combination of dynamic and static loads. You take a 150 pound person and send him down the road or trail at a high rate of speed, he is putting significant loads on a frame. Twice the speed 4 time the impact load in bumps etc...