Bicycle Mechanics - Hole in left chainstay, Still safe?

I am converting an old trek 660 bike (reynolds 531) to a rain bike. I noticed as I was starting work on it the left chainstay has a puncture hole in the bottom about 2 inches from the bottom bracket (at least it looks like a puncture, I doubt it is a drain hole as the other chainstay has no such hole). Does this compromise the strength of the frame in a catastrophic way? It is a small hole almost like an icepick or scratch awl size. Should I be concerned about this being a dangerous frame?

No. Unless it spreads I would not worry about it.

We've taken to rust proofing our bikes. Before you assemble it, coat the insides with rust check and let dry for two days. This will ****** further corrosion.

:beer:

All my steel bikes have small pinholes in the stays. I think it is something to do with letting air out during brazing, but Im not sure. I use them to squirt in WD-40 for rust-proofing.

Paul L; I own a 84 Trek 660 and I do not have any holes in the stays! There is a hole in the bottom bracket and in the cross bar that links the stays together but those are drilled holes that have been there since the bike was new. Is your hole perfectly round? I would assume that if the hole is in one stay and not the other and is not perfectly round than it is probably a rust hole. Either way without knowing the extent of the rust, there is no way to determine on a forum without a visual inspection if that stay will last.

But since your converting it to a rain bike anyway, just do that then. It won't break suddenly anyway, just keep a a watch on it ever so often and if it gets worse than it may be time to retire it.

BUT don't forget, Trek had a lifetime warranty on that frame to the original owner, but I'm not sure how rust applies to that, and that frame is no longer in production so with what will they replace it?

By the way Paul that was a very good frame, I raced my for 5 years and it now has just over 80,000 miles.

JB Weld anyone?

I believe it was caused by some trauma as it seems to have a scratch leading to it. This is a pretty dry climate so rust is not as much of an issue. I got the frame for free from a friend. I will keep an eye on the hole to see if it grows from use. I was afraid of a catastrophic failure in traffic or something like that. If it is the type of thing that just gets worse with time that isn't a big deal to me as the frame was a freebie.

If the hole does not look like it was drilled, then you should drill it. You need to make the hole perfect and even in order to spread load evenly around the hole. Othewise, vibrations and stress loads will be focuses to the sharpest corner of the damage and will eventually cause the stay to crack at that point.