Taking a seat tube 27.0 -> 27.2?
09-20-20, 08:56 PM
#26
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Yeah sometimes people have an undersize post in a frame for years. I've seen it. The binder bolt will still hold the post up, but the ears that it holds together may be angled and the slot may be smushed. You should have a look at the slot and see what you think. Post a pic if you're not sure. If it looks like it's been smushed down, you can always pry it open gently.
Otherwise, it's not a bad job to ream a seat tube yourself. You will need a Chadwick & Trefethen adjustable reamer size #3 or a Cleveland size I (I as in the letter I). They can be had for around 30 bucks on Ebay if you're patient. Easier than messing with a shop. Easy tools to use, just set the blades to get a snug fit and then put an adjustable wrench on and turn. Drip some oil in there too. Watch a youtube video on reaming if you're feeling nervous. Remember we all did this our first time once and we all lived through it. Even René Herse had a first seat tube reaming experience. How do you get good at something if you don't do it? Metalworking is fun and empowering! Skills build upon other skills and your skillset will become more than the sum of its parts. And I'm guessing it's less work and money to buy a reamer and do it yourself than it is to go to a shop. You can barely get someone to look at a bike these days for the cost of a good used adjustable reamer.
You start down this road, though, you know you'll end up like me and Gugie and TenGrainBread and others on this forum. Bull goose loony. Plum crazy. Bonkers. One day, you'll wake up and your partner will have left you because of your stack of obscure bike tools you bought "because it's cheaper than going to the shop" and you'll be all alone with all the weirdos your newfound skills attract to your place.
It'll be worth it.
Is your username a reference to Twin Peaks?
Otherwise, it's not a bad job to ream a seat tube yourself. You will need a Chadwick & Trefethen adjustable reamer size #3 or a Cleveland size I (I as in the letter I). They can be had for around 30 bucks on Ebay if you're patient. Easier than messing with a shop. Easy tools to use, just set the blades to get a snug fit and then put an adjustable wrench on and turn. Drip some oil in there too. Watch a youtube video on reaming if you're feeling nervous. Remember we all did this our first time once and we all lived through it. Even René Herse had a first seat tube reaming experience. How do you get good at something if you don't do it? Metalworking is fun and empowering! Skills build upon other skills and your skillset will become more than the sum of its parts. And I'm guessing it's less work and money to buy a reamer and do it yourself than it is to go to a shop. You can barely get someone to look at a bike these days for the cost of a good used adjustable reamer.
You start down this road, though, you know you'll end up like me and Gugie and TenGrainBread and others on this forum. Bull goose loony. Plum crazy. Bonkers. One day, you'll wake up and your partner will have left you because of your stack of obscure bike tools you bought "because it's cheaper than going to the shop" and you'll be all alone with all the weirdos your newfound skills attract to your place.
It'll be worth it.
Is your username a reference to Twin Peaks?
Yes, name is a twin peaks reference!
It does sound fun to ream it, appreciate the expertise. Currently no space for this kind of thing but maybe in the future. I found a framebuilder willing to ream it for the time being, although they said they are backed up with work so I would wait until the winter to bring it to them (currently riding this bike).
09-20-20, 09:19 PM
#27
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Oh, I am sure that the spec is 27.0, I have the original seatpost. And I have a different Centurion that is also 27.0. Didn’t mean to imply that maybe the bike was actually a 27.2, I just meant that there seems to be a track record of 27.2s fitting, maybe these seat tubes tend to run a little big?
Yes, name is a twin peaks reference!
Cooper
Cooper
Cooper
Damn fine television.
Currently no space for this kind of thing
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Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.
Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.
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09-20-20, 09:32 PM
#29
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Also, come visit me in Boston anytime and I'll take you on a tour of my junkpile.
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Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.
Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.
09-21-20, 12:45 AM
#31
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Yeah sometimes people have an undersize post in a frame for years. I've seen it. The binder bolt will still hold the post up, but the ears that it holds together may be angled and the slot may be smushed. You should have a look at the slot and see what you think. Post a pic if you're not sure. If it looks like it's been smushed down, you can always pry it open gently.
Otherwise, it's not a bad job to ream a seat tube yourself. You will need a Chadwick & Trefethen adjustable reamer size #3 or a Cleveland size I (I as in the letter I). They can be had for around 30 bucks on Ebay if you're patient. Easier than messing with a shop. Easy tools to use, just set the blades to get a snug fit and then put an adjustable wrench on and turn. Drip some oil in there too. Watch a youtube video on reaming if you're feeling nervous. Remember we all did this our first time once and we all lived through it.
Otherwise, it's not a bad job to ream a seat tube yourself. You will need a Chadwick & Trefethen adjustable reamer size #3 or a Cleveland size I (I as in the letter I). They can be had for around 30 bucks on Ebay if you're patient. Easier than messing with a shop. Easy tools to use, just set the blades to get a snug fit and then put an adjustable wrench on and turn. Drip some oil in there too. Watch a youtube video on reaming if you're feeling nervous. Remember we all did this our first time once and we all lived through it.
Since 27.2 is a very standard size it's quite common for people to have the precision-made tool that does exactly that size (this is probably why adjustable reamers are so much cheaper-- they don't need to have so much precision). I have one of these as well. With that tool there's even less to go wrong. You just scooch it in with a bit of oil and you have a perfect fit. Don't forget to clean the swarf out of the inside of the seat tube. I use a bit of rag with string tied around it. Shove it down to the bottom with a rod and then pull it back up a few times.
My point is it's easy if you have the right tool and there's very little to go wrong which I think is what the OP was asking.
09-21-20, 07:39 AM
#32
Junior Member
Thread Starter
That'd be a very loose tolerance. I kind of doubt it.
Let's rock!
Cooper
Cooper
Cooper
Damn fine television.
How so? I believe you could do this job in a phone booth. Marie Kondo is a capitalist shill. Clutter is the sign of an active mind! Break free from big minimalism and treat yourself to a reamer. You can sell it again, after, if that makes you feel better. Or start charging all your friends $100 to ream their seat tubes, since apparently that is the going rate. I use my reamer for stems, too, if I need to make one fit 26.0 bars and it's a 25.0.
Let's rock!
Cooper
Cooper
Cooper
Damn fine television.
How so? I believe you could do this job in a phone booth. Marie Kondo is a capitalist shill. Clutter is the sign of an active mind! Break free from big minimalism and treat yourself to a reamer. You can sell it again, after, if that makes you feel better. Or start charging all your friends $100 to ream their seat tubes, since apparently that is the going rate. I use my reamer for stems, too, if I need to make one fit 26.0 bars and it's a 25.0.
09-21-20, 10:26 AM
#33
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I have a super long black Bontrager SSR seatpost. Two bolt clamp.
Postage and it's yours.
Confirmed to fit an Ironman.
Since you are a little shy on workshop, give me a length estimate and I'll even chop it before mailing.
Postage and it's yours.
Confirmed to fit an Ironman.
Since you are a little shy on workshop, give me a length estimate and I'll even chop it before mailing.
Last edited by rosefarts; 09-21-20 at 10:30 AM.
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09-21-20, 10:29 AM
#34
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Stuff a rag down the seat tube to collect the chips. I'm confident you could do this with the frame between your legs in a phone booth. Remember phone booths?
The reamer will guide itself as long as you don't set it to too large a diameter right away.
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09-21-20, 11:56 AM
#35
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To the OP -- I would take @rosefarts up on his (?) offer, before altering a classic frame. Between an option you can undo and an option you can't, over what is mostly a cosmetic concern, the choice should be obvious.
09-21-20, 12:25 PM
#36
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What seems missing from this discussion is the somewhat imprecise manufacturing of seat posts, and the historical fact that many of them are not sized exactly as marked.
So sometimes a 27.2 marked seat post actually measures smaller, like 27.1. And it's pretty important to figure out what the actual tube inner diameter is down in the seat tube, not up at th e post lug, which can get distorted by heat in manufacturing or by subsequent abuse, by the owner. Anyway, I usually just go with sanding down the larger post, as easier than reaming. But in this case the seat lug was ovalized, and the set tube was exactly 26.0 inside farther down.
09-22-20, 10:24 AM
#37
Junior Member
Thread Starter
That is a supremely generous offer, thank you so much....but I imagine that is a 27.2 post right? Notwithstanding that it fits an Ironman, I think cramming a 27.2 in there is going to be my last option. I think I will try Ben's rattle can suggestion, and then if I am not satisfied with the result I'll take the bike over to Bilenky in the winter to have them ream the seat tube, since I don't think there's much risk if they are the ones doing it. Appreciate the encouragement from others to do the reaming myself but I don't think that's in the cards.
Last edited by coffeecherrypie; 09-22-20 at 10:29 AM.
09-22-20, 10:28 AM
#38
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Good point. I am aware of this--I have checked the original seatpost, and the replacement seatpost I have in there now, and they are both quite close to 27.00 according to my calipers.
09-22-20, 01:17 PM
#39
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Yeah sometimes people have an undersize post in a frame for years. I've seen it. The binder bolt will still hold the post up, but the ears that it holds together may be angled and the slot may be smushed. You should have a look at the slot and see what you think. Post a pic if you're not sure. If it looks like it's been smushed down, you can always pry it open gently.
Otherwise, it's not a bad job to ream a seat tube yourself. You will need a Chadwick & Trefethen adjustable reamer size #3 or a Cleveland size I (I as in the letter I). They can be had for around 30 bucks on Ebay if you're patient. Easier than messing with a shop. Easy tools to use, just set the blades to get a snug fit and then put an adjustable wrench on and turn. Drip some oil in there too. Watch a youtube video on reaming if you're feeling nervous. Remember we all did this our first time once and we all lived through it. Even René Herse had a first seat tube reaming experience. How do you get good at something if you don't do it? Metalworking is fun and empowering! Skills build upon other skills and your skillset will become more than the sum of its parts. And I'm guessing it's less work and money to buy a reamer and do it yourself than it is to go to a shop. You can barely get someone to look at a bike these days for the cost of a good used adjustable reamer.
You start down this road, though, you know you'll end up like me and Gugie and TenGrainBread and others on this forum. Bull goose loony. Plum crazy. Bonkers. One day, you'll wake up and your partner will have left you because of your stack of obscure bike tools you bought "because it's cheaper than going to the shop" and you'll be all alone with all the weirdos your newfound skills attract to your place.
It'll be worth it.
Is your username a reference to Twin Peaks?
Otherwise, it's not a bad job to ream a seat tube yourself. You will need a Chadwick & Trefethen adjustable reamer size #3 or a Cleveland size I (I as in the letter I). They can be had for around 30 bucks on Ebay if you're patient. Easier than messing with a shop. Easy tools to use, just set the blades to get a snug fit and then put an adjustable wrench on and turn. Drip some oil in there too. Watch a youtube video on reaming if you're feeling nervous. Remember we all did this our first time once and we all lived through it. Even René Herse had a first seat tube reaming experience. How do you get good at something if you don't do it? Metalworking is fun and empowering! Skills build upon other skills and your skillset will become more than the sum of its parts. And I'm guessing it's less work and money to buy a reamer and do it yourself than it is to go to a shop. You can barely get someone to look at a bike these days for the cost of a good used adjustable reamer.
You start down this road, though, you know you'll end up like me and Gugie and TenGrainBread and others on this forum. Bull goose loony. Plum crazy. Bonkers. One day, you'll wake up and your partner will have left you because of your stack of obscure bike tools you bought "because it's cheaper than going to the shop" and you'll be all alone with all the weirdos your newfound skills attract to your place.
It'll be worth it.
Is your username a reference to Twin Peaks?
