Originally Posted by
ephemeralskin
I hadn't ever heard of these but this is pretty much exactly what I ended up finding, while rummaging through the various fastener drawers at the hardware store. They are called
Brad Hole Tee Nuts and I still had to very slightly enlarge the holes in the frame, but this turned out to be easily managed with just a handheld drill and everything worked out great! Also, the main reason something like this is necessary is there is zero clearance for a bolt head or a regular washer/nut, since it would hit the teeth on the first cog.
I mean, how would anyone not want to have the fastest TI errand runner? Also I live 15 miles out in the country, so running errands is at minimum a 30 mile ride.
Nicely done with the drill and innovative hardware. If I'd seen this thread earlier I would have told you to go ahead. Many machinists can be so pedantic and tend to condescend to laypeople, but I have extensive experience machining Ti with high-speed steel tooling and I can speak from experience: as long as your tooling is sharp and you use a lot of feed pressure you're fine. Coincidentally, that's exactly what a tap is, if it's in good condition! I actually prefer sharp steel tooling over carbide for Ti. But if your drill is dull, you'll melt it in no time!!
Your solution is less invasive. But those drops are massive, so I don't think there'd be much danger of them breaking, unless you took out a huge chunk.
And yeah, I get it. I have a friend who commutes on a similar old Litespeed, even in winter salt. He swears by it. Fenders next?!