sparrow vs. CR

Hello all,
I recently broke a chainstay on my newly-painted (but probably pretty old) steel Nishiki frame. Here's a link to the bike on fixed gear gallery: https://fixedgeargallery.com/2006/apr/AndyGreenberg.htm. Below is a picture of the tragic break.

Now, what to do: should I get it welded? How much should that cost? Will it be as strong as it ought to be? Does any know who near Philadelphia might do the best job? (Bilenky, Havnoonian or someone else)? The frame was too wide originally, so I was squeezing the stays to get the wheel on. Did that contribute to the break? If I weld it will I have to have the frame "cold set" to the proper width?

I originally paid $200 for the entire bike, but I've put too much time into refurbishing and painting the frame it to chuck it without some hesitation. I really don't know if welding is really worthwhile, though.

Sorry about my total cluelessness. Please advise.

HereNT

There have been a few threads recently where someone put track ends on themselves. Seemed like a pretty simple process. Any decent builder should be able to do it fairly easily, and possible some LBSs could, too.

And yeah, if you fix it, get the triangle cold set. Or use a bunch of spacers.

mihlbach

I'd say get a new old frame and just hold onto this one if you have the space for it, or give it away, but don't chuck it. Right now, its pretty easy to find old versatile steel frames, but someday they'll have to be rare..so eventually it may be worth fixing, especially if everything goes carbon (or something similar) in the future.

bejay

hmmm, ive been wondering the same thing, ive had an old ganwell pro sitting in my house for 6 months now that has a tiny crack above the bottom bracket, ive been wondering wheather or not to fix it or to just hold onto the frame as a souvenier from kyoto....i just dont know where in nyc to take it to be looked at to get an estimate....

MKRG

I think the bike is nothing too special. It's a pretty machine but nothing unique. Due to where the break is though, I think it merits looking into getting trackends brazed in there. See how much it would cost you to do that and then go from there.
What kind of metal is it? What it's made of can tell a lot about whether or not it's worth salvaging.

MacG

It looks like a cast dropout, which will be more brittle than a stamped or forged dropout. I would say that flexing the frame inwards to get better spacing could have contributed to the failure in this case due to the way the cast dropout was stressed unusually.

Like other are saying, this looks like a great opportunity to have a framebuilder melt the old dropouts out with a torch and braze in some track ends. The frame it's self is just fine; the failure is all in the dropout.

summerinside

Yeah, go for the trackends. get em welded in there (do it yourself because if you screw up you can just chuck the bike...)

r-dub

For a frame of that value, I'd just go to a muffler shop and have it repaired for 2 bucks and a beer.

AfterThisNap

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DONT go to a muffler shop. Jeb and zeke probably are only good at welding thin metals to each other. Welding thicker metals to thin tubes takes a little bit of skill. Most specialty welding shops will probably do it for you (get it TIGed if possible) for less than 50 bucks if you do all the prep work before hand.

r-dub

If you want track ends and want to pay for it, go to a bike shop or specialty shop (like mine!) If you just want it fixed up cheap, Jeb and Zeke spend most of the day welding, and while it's true that they are experts at welding thin metals to each other, they are still probably better at welding ANYTHING than anyone at a bike shop who isn't great at it.