Repair or replace cracked dropout
 

Your recommendations please.

Should this be repaired (welded/brazed) or should the dropout be replaced. I worry that it's the drive side dropout. If repaired is it really as strong as new? The frame is Reynolds steel (I don't know which type). I'm about 210 lbs and have been losing weight (30 lbs. so far :) and expect to get to 185 to 190 lbs. I want to do some commuting and light to medium touring. My LBS said it's rideable for now but should be fixed if I'm going to commute and tour.

Can anyone recommend a place that does these repairs in Maryland, Delaware, southern Jersey, or SE Pennsylvania? I'd prefer a frame builder or someone experienced with bikes.

Thanks for any input.


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Since your frame is steel, that's a simple fix that any down-home welding shop can take care of. Especially nice if you have a friend who can weld. All that would be required is to thread a sacrificial bolt in that fits the threaded hole, clamp straight, weld the crack, and sand it flat. They may have to run a tap through the hole after they take the bolt out due to a little bit of slag or arcing in the threads.

If the builder knows what he is doing that can be brazed back together, seen it several times but not here in the states, wrong the guys from yellow jersey have pictures of repairs like that. No weld... braze.

You can get the drop out replaced aswell but either way you need to find a guy that wont charge you a lot to do it because even is cheaper to get a new frame specially if the frame you have there is just old.

There is a guy in md that can help you.. hmm... contact photogravity here in the forums he can tell who he is and stuff. The issue with all the builders in the PA area is that they dont have time for repairs or they straight forward wont answer emails (saying the things straight sorry). I would recommend dykstra at 611 bike co but based in his waiting list you could be waiting like a year to get the frame back.

From what photogravity told me the guy he knows doesnt have a super busy schedule and probably you can get that done fast, sincerely thats like 20 mins repair if the guy knows what he is doing.

I guess you could clean it up with a small Moto-tool grinder wheel and wheel brush and silver braze it. The DO is forged and ground, and the DO is brazed into the stay tubes when the frame was buit. I'd try something like Silvaloy 15 rod. Welding the crack is out of the question as the heat required would probably weaken the DO. Silver brazing is probably safe. If you had a new replacement DO, you could theoretically take the cracked one out of the stays and braze on the new one, but removing the old DO without damaging the frame is a risky and difficult job.

That crack is your warning that the frame is worn out. Time to buy a new frame, IMHO.

Ah, forged dropout means a little more work. Didn't realize that when I made ny suggestion. You could still weld it, but it has to be preheated with a torch, tig welded, then controlled cooled in sand. Maybe a little more involved than its worth....

Just weld it and don't worry about it. The bottom of the dropout doesn't carry any weight at all. Have the welder make sure it's straight and parallel and that it doesn't get hot enough to melt the brazing material at the stays. Drill and tap the hole if desired, but it will be stronger if you don't. If you're worried about it coming off on tour, just bring a derailleur hanger claw along with you.

The previous post about the frame being worn out, I hope was a joke. This crack often happens to horizontal dropouts with adjusting screws that have their derailleur hanger tweeked for some reason. The rest of the frame should be fine. Steel lasts virtually forever if it isn't damaged or rusted. I have numerous steel bikes with tens of thousands of miles on them and I outweigh you by 70 pounds.

It doesn't look like the dropout has completely failed yet, so a minimally invasive repair is quite feasible. First, I'd take a file or a Dremel with a cut-off wheel and open up and clean out the crack so there's fresh, clean metal to work on. Then fill the crack (and the adjuster bolt hole) with brass. The adjuster bolts are not required and the hole they require in the dropout is a common failure point, as you have discovered. Touch up paint as needed. Ride and enjoy.

Weld or braze, either is fine. But tapping afterward is difficult if brazing and impossible if welding. You want to retain the micro-adjust so pre-set the right side to where you want the wheel, and lock it in place during the braze or weld. Then you can adjust wheel alignment from the still usable left side.

If you opt to braze, Yellow Jersey does excellent work at reasonable prices, but brazing will burn paint off the stays for a short distance. OTOH, any decent auto or motorcycle mechanic can weld this properly at a reasonable cost, and welding won't burn paint off beyond the immediate area, so may make a prettier repair.