Originally Posted by Doug Fattic

Using a sleeve (or more accurately 2 half sleeves) makes a lot of sense for ease of repair and causes less damage to the surrounding areas than replacing the whole tube. The biggest problem might be one not liking the final looks. However it is possible to shape the sleeves in a variety of ways to make it aesthetically more pleasing. This shaping (if done right) helps distribute the stress.

Here is a sleeve repair on a Santana that I did after the down tube broke where the triple cable stop was located. Since the OP is not asking how the repair was done, I'm just showing the results. I believe this makes a stronger and better repair than replacing the whole tube - especially because the triple cable stop is located on the sleeve near where the butting transition is likely to be located.


this is the sleeve shape attached to the tube it will be cut out of


the 2 half sleeves brazed onto the tandem


adding the triple stop braze on that caused the tube to originally break


painting just the damaged area with a similar color