Last week a co worker told me an associate of his wanted to sell a Peugeot Black Rock MTB for $75. After seeing photos I agreed to buy the bike thinking it would make a nice little commuter. The bike appeared to be in good shape and came with front and rear racks. So I gave my co worker the $75 , and he picked the bike up for me. I took possession of the bike today and while looking it over initially my impression was the same as when I saw the photos. This evening I discovered upon closer inspection that the rear pannier was mounted not at the braze ons but rather through two crudely drilled holes in the seat stays near the seat tube.

After seeing the rather large holes that had been hogged out in the stays I do not feel the bike frame is structurally sound. However the $75 did get me some experience and I learned a lesson to not trust another person's assessment of what type of condition the bike is in or photos . From now on I will always view a bike in person or I will not buy it no matter how good a deal it appears to be.

Well on the bright side there’s probably $75 worth of wheels and parts on it.

$5 could have bought the correct pair of rubber coated clamps to attach the rack to the seat stays.

File it under life lessons learned, as you said. BTW, with a screen name like [MENTION=435212]SamSpade1941[/MENTION], it would seem that better detective work would have been in order..... Don't thrown things at me, it is all in jest

Bill

Are the holes large enough to weld or braze a couple short lengths of small steel tubing into them? If so, that may be a way to salvage the frame and add a custom feature as well.

+1 If you want to save the frame, I would look into brazing inside threaded tubing (threaded spacers) into the holes and then filing the outside edges flat. You could mount a rack directly to them. If the holes aren't big enough for that, perhaps you could braze in tubing as suggested and then use a nylok nut on the inside.

I'm sure it was disappointing to see that, but I wouldn't give up on the frame just yet.

I wouldnt be investing more money into what is essentially a low level frame. I'd strip it and toss it. And saw it in half before I binned it. Live and learn.

Make it into one of them fancy stools!

Been there done that. Just paid $125 for a couple of “great bikes” a former neighbor saved for me. Both went to the co op. Whoosh!