Charliekeet

Hi,
Buenos Aires frame local to me for sale with some parts for short $. What do people think of the downtube dents here?
I would keep this as a rider- not trying to restore to perfection or make money on it. I've always wanted a Lemond, and have parts on hand such that I could just buy cables/housing & a chain and that's that, but if the dents are worrisome, I'd skip it.
Listing here

Also wondering if anyone has experience with this frame re: tire clearance? I'm a heavier rider and would only want it if I can go 28s or bigger.
TIA

romperrr 

I love Lemonds, great riding bikes and usually spec'ed well.

Being a steel frame, I won't care about the dents.

Make sure it fits though, because Lemonds have long TT's.

I have no idea if 28's will fit. Maybe? Can you bring a 28mm wheelset with you to check?

Amusing the seller is including an anachronisticrear wheel, maybe sell that to recoup some costs?

krakhaus 

Structurally, it's fine. Aesthetically, that's up to you. If you wanted to get it powder coated or something, you could have those dents blocked out. Otherwise, it should ride just fine.

clubman 

I ran 28's on a 55cm '97 Tourmalet, perhaps there's a geometry chart somewhere?
A very fine riding bike.

clubman 

The '97 catalog shows the geometry for Tourmalet and Buenos Aries to be the same. Not sure which year you're looking at.
Thought the BA's were 853 tubes? It would be nice to have the seat tube clamp. He's not giving it away imo

nlerner

From one the listing pics, that looks to be Reynolds 525 tubing, not 853. FWIW, my 2001 Buenos Aires is fitted with 650b x 38mm wheels and rides great. I had to dimple the chain stays to get clearance, but that wasn’t a big deal.

Charliekeet

Looks like it's a 1998, based on the catalogs at vintage-trek. At first the Buenos Aires was 853, then became 525 or a mix of the two. The 1998 page says it was pearl light blue w/royal yellow panels, so that matches.
Not sure re: the size, although I see a 57 on the BB, and visually based on the headtube that seems about right. It might be a bit tall for me. I have ridden from 54 to 58, and I know people say these are long, but I have also seen people say it's not that simple.

SurferRosa

The best dents are on the bottom of the chain stays. The second best dents are on the bottom of the down tube. The third best dents are on the nds. The worst dents are those you can see from the ds.

Nessism

A framebuilder can roll out a good portion of that dent using tubing blocks. Position the blocks around the tube and then clamp them in a vice and slowly rotate the frame, making the tube round again and forcing the dents out. There will likely still be some visible deformation but for a frame like that, the process should work well. The fact that this frame is made from 525 chromoly steel is a bonus because it's fairly mailable. It should be a fairly easy fix, even something you can do yourself if you have a sturdy vice and purchase the proper block (most likely 1.25")

https://www.paragonmachineworks.com/...be-blocks.html

jiangshi

A down tube dent is the worst possible dent.

jdawginsc 

Why is that? I guess seat-tube, and seat stays are the ones to have since they are low impact dents...but would it in some way impact strength if it is in the middle...?

Charliekeet

Good question - jiangshi do you mean because they might indicate a front-end crash? These look to be low down.

madpogue 

A front-end crash would create a crimp or bend; those dents appear to be from something hitting it directly at those points.

jdawginsc 

...or being stored on something that pressed into it when other stuff was stacked on top?

LesterOfPuppets

Kinda looks like a work stand squishing. Dunno why they'd clamp it there, as the tubes are pretty thin in the middle of their spans.

LesterOfPuppets

I run 30mm tires on my Buenos Aires, and some 32s will fit, but It's a 2001 model year.

jamesdak 

As much as I love Lemonds I think I'd pass on this one. In my area it's not unusual to see fully built Lemonds in decent shape for $300-$500. Aside from the dents I see a lot of cosmetic wear to the paint and the wheel and bar/stem seem to be a mess. Wheel looks to be a Normandy 6 speed so freewheel. If you want to use that somehow you're limited to friction shifting and such. A quick peak at the local classifieds showed a Zurich and Tourmelet for $400 and another Zurich for $425. So those are true 853 bikes and the Zurich's are Ultegra builds with Rolf wheels. Bargains if you ask me.

Charliekeet

Thank, James and everyone else - I'm leaning that way. I think it's too much to ask for this, in this condition, so I'd be trying to get it for less and I have no idea whether it's likely with this seller.
I would definitely use other, newer wheels on it that I have lying around. But finally, I do think it'd be too big for me and so likely not a satisfactory beater neighborhood rider.

jiangshi

High stress, good chance it will buckle at that point. I’ve seen it before.

iab

Isn't the portion of the frame at the dent location typically under tension, not compression?

And the buckling at that point, under what conditions did you see it?

jiangshi

I had a similar dent in the down tube. The frame eventually failed at that point.

iab

How so?

SurferRosa

The pic in the op doesn't look like a big deal at all ... until you go to sell the frame.

jiangshi

The tube broke.

iab

Cool. Sounds exactly like all the assploding crabon tales told on teh intrawebz.