Cycling UK Forum

....I might have done things differently.

The question is how or what could I have done differently?

The seat post was seized solid. Amonia, WD40 and Plusgas were used as freeing agents. It then went to my friend's workshop and had some threaded stud inserted through the post. That assembly was then inserted in a vice and the whole frame was used as the lever, with the two of us bearing force on it, at some risk of deforming the frame. Not a squeak, nor a creak. So the last resort was to use a hacksaw blade to cut length ways down the post, then peel it away in sections. Now either I didn't cut right through the post (there seemed to be a diminishing amount of alu filings falling out with the saw) or it really was totally welded to the steel frame. That was when I started to use the screw driver and hammer in an effort to peel a section away. Oh dear

Just out of interest, has anybody else experienced that "now why didn't I think of that a minute ago" moment of profound insight and clarity, only achievable after the complete destruction of some important or treasured piece of kit?

Jerry

You don't say if you got the rascal out in the end?

Dave

You don't say if you got the rascal out in the end?

It's a bit irrelevant as he's knackered the frame now !

CREPELLO wrote:The question is how or what could I have done differently?

Stating the obvious ............ you should have removed it years ago and greased it, and repeated that at six monthly intervals.
(Sorry, couldn't resist it! )

However, you have my complete an utter sympathy. There have been many occasions in my past that I've been too hasty and broken stuff, too many to mention!

Hopefully, you've got it out now, but if you haven't please keep trying.

MikewsMITH2 wrote:It's a bit irrelevant as he's knackered the frame now !

I don't think it's completely shot. Steel is very forgiving, and with a bit of "dressing" with a light hammer you could possibly rescue the situation. The steel doesn't look like it's holed, so you should be ok.

My fingers are crossed for you.

Mick F wrote:The steel doesn't look like it's holed, so you should be ok.

Unfortunately it looks like it is Mick - I think that the blade of the screwdriver has punctured the seat-tube just below the lug.
My sympathies are with you Crepello

Oh blimey Sorry about your frame, that's really gutting

With hindsight, I'd probably have got my chemistry head on, and dissolved the aluminium bit with caustic.

Commiserations.Yes I have done exactly the same. Another item to get carried away with is stuck bottom brackets guilty of that one too.

Mick F wrote:

CREPELLO wrote:The question is how or what could I have done differently?

Stating the obvious ............ you should have removed it years ago and greased it, and repeated that at six monthly intervals.
(Sorry, couldn't resist it! )

However, you have my complete an utter sympathy. There have been many occasions in my past that I've been too hasty and broken stuff, too many to mention!

Hopefully, you've got it out now, but if you haven't please keep trying.


I think that it's a sad but uavoidable fact that those who are competent with tools - be it bike mechanics, car mechanics or DIYers - are in part only competent because of the learning which follows making mistakes. I've lost count of the jobs that I've messed up in the past but which I feel relatively expert at now.

Commiserations but is the situation irretrievable?
Is the lug undamaged? A new seat post which is a good length in the frame and a snug fit will surely spread any load/force down the length of the seat tube. bit of 'dressing' as MickF says and a small weld or braze will close the hole. In my car tinkering days Araldite, Plastic Padding (I think that's what it was called) or similar helped keep ageing VW Beetles and Campervans on the road when welds were unfeasible or too expensive. Whether you could put the same to good effect here depends on how much good metal is left and the risk judgement over whether you might have a sudden failure. I would give it a go (but don't hold me to that!). It's your call.

Cheers

CREPELLO wrote:....
Just out of interest, has anybody else experienced that "now why didn't I think of that a minute ago" moment of profound insight and clarity, only achievable after the complete destruction of some important or treasured piece of kit?

Rather gutting. My worst experience was on reassembling a bike after flying into Heathrow two years ago. 12 hour flight (Or was it 24?), 10 hours "sleeping" on an airport terminal floor and a head splitting migraine. A STI casing had cracked and hacked off, I merely tore off the remaining casing as it was in the way and preventing me from cycling North.

Resulted in an unuseable STI lever and forced the purchase of a complete new set of STI's a week later (£185)

GrahamNR17 wrote:Oh blimey Sorry about your frame, that's really gutting

With hindsight, I'd probably have got my chemistry head on, and dissolved the aluminium bit with caustic.

I've got some caustic soda crystals in the shed. Could give that a go.

I suppose I felt the framed had been rogered by my mis guided efforts, but perhaps it is salvagable...if I can get the darn thing out. I may try sawing a bit more until I hear or feel a real difference, denoting the steel, although I thought I'd reached that point, otherwise I wouldn't have started on the peeling out bit.

Can i just state for the record that I acquired this frame of a very dubious eBay seller (the damn thing had also been pranged, necessitating the purchase of some suitable forks (Hewitt's , which may be on the FS board shortly) and the bike had obviously been used as an all weather commuter.
I would never have let it get into the state it was in!
I also suspect that the seat post could have been too large for the frame. Could a 27.2 post be forced into a 27. tube I wonder

By the way, I can say that ammonia doesn't work, unless the previous point applies.

fivebikes wrote:Commiserations but is the situation irretrievable?
Is the lug undamaged? A new seat post which is a good length in the frame and a snug fit will surely spread any load/force down the length of the seat tube. bit of 'dressing' as MickF says and a small weld or braze will close the hole. In my car tinkering days Araldite, Plastic Padding (I think that's what it was called) or similar helped keep ageing VW Beetles and Campervans on the road when welds were unfeasible or too expensive. Whether you could put the same to good effect here depends on how much good metal is left and the risk judgement over whether you might have a sudden failure. I would give it a go (but don't hold me to that!). It's your call.

Cheers

Yeah, the screw driver has just peeled back some of the tubing. It could be peeled back and brazed couldn't it? Providing I can get this weaselly wascal out of it's little burrow(the tight git ). I was thinking of having the frame resprayed (although I'm broke at the moment), but the cost of repair and respray will probably be as good as anything else, unless I can acquire a frame some other way.

Condolences.

I once had a frame on which I tried all the above to remove a seatpost. Ended up with the seatpost in a, friends, bench vice using the frame for leverage to get it to move - ended up shearing the downtube. Ruined. Ended up at the tip. It was pink anyway.

Nothing I can add in the way of condolences, but next time.....

Plastic Surgery to alter your leg length to suit the frame?

As immovable objects go, rusted seatposts are up there with the best. With 40 years of equipment busting experience my preferences would have been:

Take it to a bike shop for them to break
Sacrifice the seat pin to some very large molegrips
Treat removal as a new hobby, put oil down three times a week and wiggle the post for six months
Saw off the seat post and get a shop to ream the whole thing out then fit a slightly larger post

Hindsight is a marvellous thing but excessive force and sharp objects are poor bedfellows.
I once bought a nice secondhand 531 frame. On closer examination it appeared to have an externally butted seat tube at the top. An even closer inspection revealed someone had hammered a seatpost down the seat tube. Amazingly it didn't split but gave a wider section of 531 tubing for a few inches. Oh well, it was cheap.