Can this be fixed?
 

da Vinci Designs also makes cable splitters.

Edit: Whoops, wrong thread for the above comment. Sorry.

I'd just grind off the other ear and make both sides flush with the lug and use a seatpost clamp. Don't even consider welding it as the heat will distroy the carbon tubes and I can't imaging any glue or epoxy will be strong enough.

Is it Al.?

On late night tv I saw an add for http://www.alumiweld.com/ . If you are actually successful post on this board and become a bike repair hero. On TeeVee casting a new bolt hole looked so eeeeeasy, make sure you get the broken off piece, I think you need to make a cast for the AL. Serious about the hero stuff, if you are successful.

I've used the alumiweld stuff on repairing some mounting-ears on an alternator. It's some sort aluminum solder. It really does work! Even hit the part with a hammer to see if it would hold and it did!

Problem on that Specialized is that the heat needed will most likely burn the carbon-fibre resin in that joint. It might be possible with some super-fast, super-concentrated heat like a TIG welder.

Saddles are for little girls. Go comando and dance on the pedals all day.

Maybe, but I bet a good repair would require sending it back to Specialized to have the lug replaced... if they even have spare parts anymore. A skilled machinist/bike builder would be able to cobble together a replacement seatpost clamp arrangement, but doing that would far exceed the dollar value of the frame.

I dunno... maybe it'd make an interesting clock frame.

FWIW: long ago, I worked at a place that imported Vitus aluminum and Carbone frames. The Carbones had aluminum lugs and carbon tubes like that Specialized, and they came back with lugs separated from tubes from time to time. We'd glue 'em back together with epoxy and send them on their way.

hmmm i say, knock the other ear and use a darn clamp.

The frame is pretty busted in my opinion anyways. 150 bucks it is too much for an old and super abused carbon frame, for 650 or 600 u can get a new one, wait a little bit more to gather the money dude. 50 bucks it is ok but 150 it is too much.

Thanks.

That's not worth $150, even if that piece wasn't broken. Don't buy into someone elses problem

What kind of clamp? There's not enough exposed tubing to get a seattube-clamp collar around. I think a C-clamp would work.

http://www-ece.rice.edu/~jdw/figs/c_clamp_2.jpg

Thats exactly the clamp i was thinkiing about :)

well always u can drill a hole in the middle of the lug an put a little bolt. THat works too.

For a busted frame of that sort I'd say $50 was a more appropriate price and let someone that can work some magic of some sort play with the repair. $150 is robbery.

Weldable? The guy selling it is either blowing smoke or really doesn't have a clue. You can't get near a bonded frame like that even with a fast shot of TIG since even that short an amount would be enough to fry the bonding. If it's an epoxy it would just melt and then re-solidify with no real harm. If it's more of a Loctite style it would ruin the bond.

Epoxy glues are not thermoplastic and they set into a non-melting permanant solid. Welding heat, even short term, would thermally degrade the joint and/or tubes and they will never restore their bond after the heat is removed.

You are absolutely right the seller is either clueless or a fraud.

Thank you all for great comments. I was wondering if I should offer him $50 just to see if that thing can be JB Welded http://jbweld.net/index.php

I guess I might as well spend $50 on beer.

FlatMaster: you scare me!

JBWeld is highly over rated by many folks. It is "just" epoxy glue and not some miracle goop. A good epoxy I'll grant you but still just epoxy. The filler they use in it makes it easy to machine once cured but it's nowhere near being metal like. In the end you'd be trying to "weld" the parts together by glueing them together with some plastic. And the first time you tighten the seat post into place that JBWelded tab would bust right back off.

Hillrider, I've seen epoxy get hot enough to soften and be able to push around into new shapes and return to the original plastic condition but it was a near thing where the glue wasn't heated to any sort of considerably higher temperature. So it was fine when taken to THAT extent. It may also depend on the type of epoxy. But I would not doubt that if it was taken higher it would alter the makeup and ruin it so that it would not return to its original state upon cooling. I'll have to try some outdoors where the fumes won't make me gag and retch... :D

Are you SURE what you saw was really an Epoxy resin, not something else? There are several thermoplastic resins that are used as structural materials and can be softened by heat and then regain their rigidity when cooled. Epoxy isn't one of them.

I agree with your warning about JB Weld. It's good stuff but by no means as strong as real metal.

I am convinced. I will forget this stupid idea :)

alumiweld as danno said is the only thing could work to rapair it, the issue will be the heat. The nice about alumiweld is that it work at low temperatures. We are talking about to redo the whole ear using alumiweld (if the guy doesnt have the missing part)

The bad part as somebody said is that heat might damage the bonding between carbon and the lug. If the frame goes for 30 it worth to give it a shot, if not well... take the 50 and get drunk with beer :P

If you are good with a file and hand tools you go do it. I would file a flat spot at the broken lug. I would then form a lug out of aluminum. I would drill and tap the new lug and the seat lug and assemble.

Yes, in two cases I personlly mixed it up and let it set. Then later I had occasion to warm it up just to soften it a little. Like I say, it didn't go watery. Just softened it to about the consistency of two or three day old chewing gum so I could push a part up to it and make it mold to place. Another time I did this was to someone elses part on what they said was epoxy glue and I had no reason to doubt them.

Come to think of it there was a time I warmed up a part that had 5 minute epoxy on it and the epoxy didn't really soften but it did go all brown. So perhaps we come back to the idea that there's varioius types. 5 minute being a 1:1 and the ones I played with heating and molding were 2:1 types.

And then there was a buddy of mine that told me he reset the engine mount on one of his models that was epoxied in place by heating it up to where he was able to just twist it to the new angle. When it cooled he flew it for a few years without issue. I'm pretty sure the stuff he used (the old Hobbypoxy brand but that won't mean anything to you) was a 2:1 as well. So maybe there's a difference right there.

<shrugs> Something for the back of your mind at least.....