Bad repairs
#1
Passista
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Bad repairs
This is the latest one I've found:


The axle broke and they welded it, what was bad enough - but they didn't clean the bore and forced the quick release into it, damaging the threads. The nut couldn't get tightened enough, but as this was a vertical dropout frame they sort of got away with it. The owner still felt something was wrong and took it to me. New axle and quick release, all's good now.
Any experiences with bad hacks like this?


The axle broke and they welded it, what was bad enough - but they didn't clean the bore and forced the quick release into it, damaging the threads. The nut couldn't get tightened enough, but as this was a vertical dropout frame they sort of got away with it. The owner still felt something was wrong and took it to me. New axle and quick release, all's good now.
Any experiences with bad hacks like this?
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#2
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That's going to a LOT of effort to end up with a terrible result! Sheesh! Unless this rider was in the Kazakh outback without any hope of spare parts, this hack is really extreme.
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#3
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This belongs in the new Facebook group, The WTF side of Bike Mechanics
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Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
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Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
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... When your 8-speed freewheel axle breaks on a fully-loaded tour, and you just happen upon a welding shop...

.

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#7
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Rule #1 : Never give someone a MIG or stick welder until they've learned enough about repairing things - or else they'll reach for the welder every time. Ditto with hammers.
-Kurt
-Kurt
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Yeah, it seems easier and quicker to replace the axle; however faced with the time and effort to spec and acquire a new axle <AND> having the overconfidence of most ardent DIYers, I can easily see why this made sense to the previous owner.
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I might do something on my own bikes, which have lots of cobbled together stuff, but at least I would clean up the weld, but i wouldn't attempt it on someone else's machine unless they insisted and were fully aware of the risks.