Repair Steel Frame
 

Hello friends,

I was wondering if you can tell me how I can go about fixing this frame. I recently got a hold of a Tesch S22 road bike frame. It is made with double butted 4130 chromoly tubing and its quite light. I would love to build this frame up but there are a few problems.

First, where do I find compatible fork for such frame? The guy sold me the frame with the fork but looks like the fork's been damaged beyond repair. Well, looks like the bike was involved in a collision which bent the fork slightly inwards. The previous owner had taken the fork out and stomp on it to bend it back. Doing so damaged the thread of the fork, so I need to find a replacement.

Second, there are two cracks, one on the top tube and one on the down tube very near the head tube of the frame. Seems like damage was caused by the same accident. From what I can see, the top tube crack is very light, while the down tube crack wraps about 1/3 of the tube across the top. Is this something repairable? There are no rust anywhere on the surface of the frame, but there are some rust at the cracks. If I get somebody to weld crack, should I grind out the rust on the crack first? i.e. cutting into the crack to clean out the rust?

Thanks for your help! I would love to rescue this frame and bring it back to life.

Forgive me if this is a holly grail frame I have never heard of, but... To me a frame that hit so hard it wreaked the fork, and split the main tube is a write-off. If you were on tour on Mars and your only option were to weld it up, you would clean away any rust first, and weld the tubes as well as possible or patch them. Tubes can be welded, some of my practice when starting out was to hacksaw a spit in tubes, and then weld it over, but there is a cost in tubing strength which is provided for in the joints by butts or generally thick walls, elsewhere it would be a weakness.

You likely have an alignment problem also.

Forks are easy to come by from any major parts supplier that deals with QBP.

It is possible to repair lugged frames by inserting new tubes, but it is a major job and it sounds like this frame went well past the yield point already.

this is a repair that can only safely be performed by replacing the top and down tubes. Since Tesch was a well-respected builder who is deceased, this frame may be of value to someone, but I don't know that for sure.

Almost any steel frame can be repaired but the question is, is it worth the time end energy required to do so.