Need opinion on rust spots and possible dent
 

I bought a custom painted Bianchi road bike a couple of years ago that I think is just too big for me and I'm thinking of selling it. There are a couple of rust spots on it. Some seem like a big deal (headset) and others seem like someone could probably live with it (cable guide). I've also got a spot where the paint has rubbed off under the downtube and maybe a light layer of rust that can probably be cleaned off. There's also either a very deep scratch or a very small dent on the toptube. The way the light hits it makes me think it's a dent, but I want to be completely sure (Last scratch on the right. I should have taken a better picture of that one, sorry).

I want to be able to be honest when I eventually put up my ad and just need some help determining if the above issues should affect the integrity of the frame.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

The rust and scratches will be fine. That is a dent and it should be fine too, but will effect the price big time.

Thanks for the info.

Do you think the rust, especially on the headset, would reduce the price as much as the dent would?

If it were me buying the bike, the rust can be repaired as long as it's not rotted, but the dent cannot.

As is, doubt it has much value if any real value for anyone due the amount of rust at present, an acid dip/blast & re-paint/renovation would remove all the rust, but you would be unlikely to recoup the cost of that, and any potential buyer would account for it when looking hence the very low value.

For the paint job, when you say custom, is this factory, or what someone has had done after?

As an addition, if you are riding this, replace the brake cable outer, you can see this has severe corrosion issues in the middle top photo.

The guy I bought it from was the original owner and actually had his name painted on the frame as well... not sure if the factory or shop he bought it from did the paint job.

I'm still looking into seeing if I can change anything up for it to be ride-able for me. I really like the bike and would put the time/money into re-paint/renovation if I could make it work. Currently, there's just too much shoulder/neck pain for me to want to deal with it.

Oh, and thanks for the head's up on the cable outer.

Bike body work
 

Essentially, if you are good with vehicle body work, you should be able to fix bicycle dings on a metal frame. I had a ding on the top tube of a PX10E that I filled in with a small amount of body filler before I did an entire repaint (covering whatever decals worth salvaging with masking tape first). I think top tubes are very susceptible to damage, especially on double butted tubing where the center points of the tubes are thinner walled because they don't need as much strength.

That color on your bike is a metallic. Even for a paint shop and a vehicle color code, that would be hard to repair without being noticeable. Since you are not a paint shop and there is no vehicle color code for a bike, you'll never get it perfect. You might want to look through rattle cans at your local autozone/advance autoparts/NAPA etc. for a similar color and practice first on a hunk of pipe. I usually create an aperture out of a piece of cardboard and hold it a few inches from whatever I'm painting and then spray through the aperture from a few more inches away to control where the paint goes.

Good luck.

The first thing to do, in my opinion, is to figure out if the bike is the right size for you. You think it might be too big, but it looks like a pretty small frame (from picture #2 ). You might post a picture of the whole bike from the right hand side, and of you on the bike, in the Fitting Forum, along with an explanation of what is uncomfortable.

If you want to keep the bike, you can treat the rust and then protect the metal with clear nail polish or paint. Depending on how much you care about the cosmetics and how good you are at matching and applying paint.

If you want to sell the bike, I wouldn't bother to do anything about the rust and scratches. They don't affect the frame's integrity, they just make the frame a restoration project for the buyer. Hence, not worth too much, unless this is some very high end model which I can't tell. The previous owner badly devalued the bike by having it "custom painted", and any paint touchup you do is likely to be still quite noticeable. You might get the most money by parting the bike out, if you know enough to disassemble it without damaging anything. Hard to say without better pictures of the bike.

What did you end up doing with the Bianchi Krono?

The rust does not appear to be so bad that it will affect the function of the frame, but certainly will affect the value if trying to sell as a collector rather than a rider.

I can't see the dent, so I think that would mean it is a pretty small dent.

I also noticed that this is not a very big frame - maybe a 54cm? How tall are you? Because there are other factors to fit besides frame size.

Good advice on going to the fitting forum, jyl. I'll go and take some pics and post when i get a chance.

I finally got around to selling the Kronos this summer. The buyer came from another province and it was only then that we noticed some odd cracking pattern on the paint of the frame. It wasn't flaking or anything, just a very tiny craking pattern was on the bike that i never noticed. We attributed it to a bad prepping job at the factory during the painting stages. I cut the price down due to his drive and the paint and i think we were both happy with the deal. I kinda miss it but have come to realize that it was too aggressive for anything other than the velodrome.

The issues pictured will certainly affect the value of the bike but not the integrity, at least not for a while. The previous owner already destroyed most of the frame's value with the "custom" paint job and chrome unicrown fork (which I assume is not original.)

If you are planning to keep it, make sure it fits before putting a ton of effort into it.

If you are selling it, don't do anything unless you know what you're doing. You could easily make it worse. Sell it for what you can get and move on.

Hi Wilfred Laurier.

I measured it at about 55-56cm. I'm just under 5.8. When standing over the bike, there's barely any clearance but i can still lay my feet flat on the ground. If the frame were 1 cm smaller, i'd feel better about it but i still feel safe with the limited clearance.

In addition to eventually posting some pics on the fitting forum, i'll stop by the LBS to see if a change in stem and/or handlebars will make any difference. I personally don't mind the dent and can fix up the rust cheap and ugly, so it might be more worthwhile to save this bike for me rather than selling it.

If you like it, ride it!