So....I've been holding off on another bike, since I've had kids.
Diapers, childcare, and mortgage are pretty expensive....as is space for bikes.

More recently, I found a Montague Boston from Facebook Marketplace for my wife.
The catch is...it doesn't work.
When we took it home, we found a massive gash in the frame.

Thanks to the framebuilders forum on BF, I took it to a local welder, who quoted about $60-75 to fix the thing (impressive that he can weld aluminum).
He thinks that the bike was kept outside, and water accumulated inside.
Eventually, the water froze...tearing a gash in the chainstay tubing.

Anyways, I plan to rebuild this bike for my wife.
I truly hope she can enjoy a sweet, silent ride without the kids, the dog, or me.
Postpartum has been tough.

Any advice on what I should consider?

Here's my plan so far:

- Replace the chain, the inner tubes,
- Get bike pedals (considering the MKS Superior Always or Sylvans, but open to other options like the MK7 folding pedals)
- Wood looking foam grips (for now).
- upgrade the brakes to Dura Ace 7400 (off ebay for $28).
- put stock flatbars back on, instead of the drops.

Not sure if there's anything else? I'm gonna try to clean the rust off everything. Considering evaporust or WD40.

Also, not sure if I should drill some drainage holes in the frame?

I can make a silicone stop to keep crap from going inside.

With the amount of rust and the frame damage,I wouldn't have touched it. If a customer had brought in a bike with the frame in that condition,I would've told them it was done.

Seconded.... with that frame damage, I would recycle it.

Still, I do wish you the best of luck.

Internal damage/corrosion could make that frame too dangerous to ride. Aluminum, unlike steel, doesn't bend when it fails, it's immediate. I wouldn't waste my time on that bike...

To me, Montague bikes are reasonably priced for what you get. Why not just buy a new one? Or keep searching for used?

Odd claim. Aluminum is softer and less dense than steel. Soft materials bend more easily than hard materials.

hope you didn't pay much...lawn art to me
chains are cheap and they rust easily...not a big deal
the welder is just going to fill that area...buyer beware...not my bike so don't care but i'd not let my wife ride it but do what you want

T-6061 AL is heat treated. If you weld it and don't heat treat it, it has roughly a third of its strength.in the immediate area of the weld. There in lies the problem. The person who welded it, should know this but.

Thirded.

Maybe save some components, then saw it into pieces and recycle it, so some chump doesn't try to weld it up and use it.

If this is still a "saga", it can only end in two ways: Failure with a crash story or scrapping the bike.

Man, that's good to know.
I'll run that past the welder guy....maybe I just won't have it welded, do a patch fill.

In the meantime, I may still build it up temporarily, and reuse the parts of the bike in the future.
The crankset is trashed, as is the chainring.

So far, my plan was to build it up...have my wife try it....if she *really* likes it, I'll get her a better bike.
I may see if we can go try it out at Warm Planet Bikes in SF.

Maybe, I can avoid sunk cost fallacy.

So far, the only money I've put into it is a new chain, tire tape, grips, brakes, brake cables...I'm on my way to getting a used crankset off Facebook Marketplace.

I'm thinking of just seeing if I can buy a frameset to build up.

Do you think I can wrap the area with a hemp reinforced epoxy lug? Or is this also dangerous?

Man....after looking into things, I'll just buy her a better used bike.

Looking at the cost of things, it may not be worth sinking all that much money into this bike.

I confused weld failure with metal fatigue. We've seen multiple bike frames fail in this forum, and most all were at the weld, where it happened almost instantly. These were all aluminum framed bikes...

I sorta feel like Jack Sparrow bragging about his schooner to a lady, only to have a leaking dingy.

At least it's taught me how to use a crank puller

I may try my hand a wheel building sometime...
One day, I'd like to be as badass as Jurien.

It's not surprising that the occasional weld failure is reported. Aluminum frames have represented the vast majority of adult bike sales since at least the mid-1990's,

Aluminum bikes replaced steel bikes in the market for a simple reason.

Steel bikes can be moderately durable and somewhat affordable (and heavy; Surly's hipster marketing made heavy steel frames an acceptable alternative to aluminum) or moderately light and expensive.

But using aluminum made it easy for manufacturers to provide affordable frames with a good margin of strength while keeping the weight reasonably low.

On the bright side, those components you spent money on can be saved.

Good call.
This is the risk we take buying used. You're not out too much money.

FWIW, the dude refunded the money we paid.

It's more time and ego.


On a side note, anyone ever ride a Montague and a Swift?
Unconsciously, I compare every folding bike to my Xootr Swift.

That was a great bike.

I wasn't talking about "occasional" weld failures, and weather-beaten frames are not reliable. I also know all about the weight weenie issues, and we all understand the cost efficiency aspect. I don't really care about going into a long-winded discussion about issues that are off topic, considering I was addressing the OP, and not you. I corrected my mistake, and now you're going to keep going. Please don't quote me again...

Actually, I wasn't thinking of folding bikes in my reply. I agree that aluminum is absolutely the wrong material for folding bikes.

No, aluminum ISN'T the wrong material for folding bikes. That's your personal preference, not factual...

You definitely know way more than me on framebuilding, but I've gotta disagree on this one.

While I'm not the hugest fan of aluminum, it makes the vast majority of folding bikes on the market.
Most of these folders were meant to be disposable, but are still standing.

Anyways, I'm gonna take off the headset during lunch, and drop off the frame at the recycling center near my office.

On a side note, I picked up a fretless bass to restore to keep my hands busy.