Possible to rescue this?
 

A local guy in my town is selling this bike, but it has a crack in the front,
I'm tempted to buy it and try to weld it, but does it look possible and worth it?
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6160/deadg.jpg
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/33/dead2a.jpg

Hopefully one of you can give me proper guidiance :)

If it is really cheap, buy it. You can always save the components, but they look kind of rusty though.
But I wouldnt buy it if your intentions are to ride that frame.

The handlebars look like they have a crack too? (or residue from tape that looks like a crack?)

I suppose you could have the aluminum lug repaired, but I imagine that would ruin the looks of it, and I doubt the frame would be strong as it was before the crack after the repair. Probably not worth the trouble.

JB Weld ;)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...eldpackage.jpg






Hahaha! Just kidding!

And a couple of big zip-ties. :)

How exactly does a headtube crack in that manner?! :twitchy:

From performing too many sweet ramp-jumps.

If that were the last bike in the world, I would put a couple of hose clamps on it and ride it home before tossing it. As to how it happened, I suspect that there may have been some minor issues in the frame's construction. Then someone either pressed the bloody snot out of it with a bearing cup press, hauled an elephant on the handlebars down a cobblestone street, or decided to do some 10-speed free-style tricks with it.

Fixing it will require replacing the head tube which is neither cheap nor easy. Assuming you want it re-painted to match the original, you are going to have to ask yourself if the $1,000 restoration is worth it (you will likely have the most expensve Olmo on the planet).

If you want to learn how to build frames, this is a good one to practice on (those lugs look like aluminum...if so, scrap the practice idea). If you want the parts off of it, go ahead. Both assume it is priced reasonably.

Worth the price of parts only.

Thank you for the replies.
I'll see if I can get the super record group without the frame.

First, I would offer to buy the complete bike. Don't get the seller thinking about the components. Focus on the damaged frame and suggest that it will be costly to repair. Make a minimal offer, say a little less than half of what the SR grouppo would be worth and go from there.

As for the frame set, itself? Pooched! Repairable? Yes. Cost effective, absolutely not. I'll sell you a full SR anything(that I have) for a grand and the frame set will be just fine.

$200 max. Hopefully the rest of the group doesnt look like those brakes.

well, just to add 2 cents that are worth about 2¢, the re-badged ALAN frame looks like it only suffered a crack thru the lower headlug, and since it's alloy it could be TiG welded by a very skilled welder, but: it won't be cheap, it won't look pretty and the heat might ruin the adjacent headtube's pretty anodizing.
It has parts (and a decent Olmo panto'd steel fork that's worth $ to the right Olmo owner) that are worth buying it for, and you might be surprised how good they'll look after you spend time soaking them in oxalic acid and applying elbow grease.

That brake look like its from the NR group not SR

Duct tape.

The pressed-in bearing cup was the wrong size. With steel, you ruin the cup, with aluminum, you set up a time bomb.

Is that a Fanini, and Alan, or an Olmo? Can you say "dog's breakfast"?

Brakes are NR (EDIT: Or pre-1985 SR, as Anthony pointed out), headset looks like modern Chorus or something to that effect, and the RD is SR.

-Kurt

I dunno about that being caused by a bad press-in of the lower cup (it's possible, for sure, but that's a Campy HS): the head tube will be deformed by that as well, and it does have a replacement fork...I'd guess a front-end crash. AL will crack when steel will bend. And it is an ALAN, but re-badged as Fanini (another one I didn't know about, add it to the growing list of re-badges for ALAN)
Question: did they cut threads in either of those headtube joints? Or were those joints just glued? I'm guessing that threads could also weaken the lugs just a bit.

There was never any difference between the super and nuovo record calipers... By the time the final gen. 1985-1987 SR script logo caliper was introduced (like cobalto with different center nuts and black rubber) the nuovo record group was no longer in production. Long, short, nutted or recessed could be ordered as part of any group.

Wall art?

I like the idea of TIG welding the crack. Build up the repair area, Mad Max style, and ride the crap outta the frame. ;)
It's toast anyway.

did you buy the whole bike yet?

Well, the brakes have the domed QR so that puts them around 78ish right?

'78-85.

-Kurt

I might be interested in the forks and handlebars :)