Friday was repair day...

Yep, everyone had a crisis today.

EMERGENCY #1 -

As promised, I started off the day grafting in a new section of steerer tube for Marc B. This type of fabrication work is controversial at best, as everyone has an opinion as to the strength and durability of such repairs. Personally, the majority of the time, I feel that it is better to just build a new fork than to mess with such repairs, but each case is different.

So, below is a little vid tutorial showing the most bombproof repair procedure that I've used...for you builder types faced with such requests, check it out and decide for yourself your own level of expertise and comfort with such repairs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNbJ9dadNYo

EMERGENCY #2 -

Mikey had called a few months back and advised that he was having an issue with his seat post...it would not move. When I asked him when the last time he had it out to lube it was, the answer was not promising...never.

So, he pre-treated the post with some penetrating oil for the last month or so, before coming in today to see how successful we would be in getting it out.

First up, we clamped the frame upside down by the post using a set of Vee blocks and a long breaker bar bolted through the Thomson seat rail supports...the result, we split the post vertically with our torsional efforts. Hmmm, this is gonna be tougher than I thought.

Next, I cut off the remaining shards of post, and got to work...

I began by carefully sawing the post into four segments, hoping to create some relief to remove the pieces.

Cutting all done, let's try to peel away some pieces parts ;)

After much work, I was able to free the remaining post. The aluminum had chemically bonded to the interior of the steel seat tube, leaving only a galvanic dust behind. Here's Mike, relieved to be finished with the process...

The seat tube escaped unscathed, minus a little paint from the operation. A quick pass with the reamer and admonishment to grease his post when he lubes his chain ended the day.

The aftermath...

Lesson learned...it's fun to ride your bike, but it needs some attention too every now and then.

EMERGENCY #3-

Mike S. stopped by with a broken control lever in his hand...a necessary component for his snow plow to battle the 4' drifts covering his driveway. A quick trip through the blaster, 5 min on the weld table, and some fast drying paint and he was on his way back into the cold.

So, busy day, but good...it was nice to resolve some simple problems before I jump into the show fray.

cheers,

rody