WxGuesser

Hey guys. Question. I was looking at a Specialized Diverge but, it has maybe an issue. In the right seat stay at the top there’s a screw that is to hold a rack. Someone put the wrong size (too long) screw into the hole and screwed it through the aluminum. It’s sticking out the other side. Would it be worth considering the bike as a beater bike? Is there a way to repair a hole in a seatstay?

WxGuesser

Hey guys. Question. I was looking at a used Specialized Diverge but, it has maybe an issue. In the right seat stay at the top there’s a screw that is to hold a rack. Someone put the wrong size (too long) screw into the hole and screwed it through the aluminum. The screw goes all the way through the seatstay. It’s sticking out the other side. Would it be worth considering the bike as a beater bike? Is there a way to repair a hole in a seatstay? I read a few posts about other people repairing holes. A few suggested putting in a rivnut. Would this work?

cyclezen

A pic of the hole would help...
Seat stays don;t have much bending stress. I had a steel frame which had one seat stay crushed inward from a rear-ender in a mid-pack mass crash. Took it to the frame builder who built the frame - he did one of those 'hmmmm' stares, said he'd 'fix' it. He straightened the stay, filled the 2 inch depression with solder, painted and handed it back to me...
I rode that bike for another 6 yrs (secondary crit race bike) then sold it and knowing the buyer, he rode for another 6 yrs... Not sure where it is now...
repair was never a problem...

Alu - fill it with some slow set epoxy or JB weld, sand, touchup paint... done...
A good price negotiating point ...
Ride On
Yuri

Andrew R Stewart 

The portion of a seat stay between the brake bridge and the seat cluster is pretty solid and lacking in serious stresses. Still a raggedly formed hole in an Al structure is a concern for cracking at some future point. I wouldn't do much to correct the hole, opening it up and smoothing the edges would be the best and least expensive thing to do. Any welding a "plug" into it would also want some sort of after welding treatment to regain the Al's strength. A RivNut will only hide the hole's edges, where the crack will start at, and make monitoring the hole less informative. Ride the bike, periodically check the hole (no matter what you do to it) and enjoy this bike for as long as you can. Andy

Iride01 

I wouldn't be afraid to ride it. Unless you go 50 mph on bumpy roads during your commute.

Though assuming this is a used bike you are looking to purchase, that would be a ding to the price and if the price wasn't already rock bottom, I'd point that out as a reason for not paying the ask price.

You will need to watch that hole regularly from now on to ensure nothing bad is happening. But without seeing it in person it's hard to say. Though I doubt it will ever become anything. Fixing it will be costly on an aluminum bike.

IMO, Epoxy products really won't help it structurally unless you are going to wrap glass cloth around it and make an ugly bulge. However epoxy like JB Weld will let you fill the hole and make it look nice if you sand it smooth and use touch up paint.

shoota 

I'd just screw the screw back in and leave it there.

cb400bill

Merged duplicate threads.

WxGuesser

Thanks to all. The bike shop where the bike is located was asking 1100. When I noticed the problem they said that I could have it for 700. Bike is in good shape otherwise. I would just feel horrible if something happened and I wasted 700…. The piece of aluminum where the screw poked us still there. It’s just bent upward it’s pretty small.

Andrew R Stewart 

I'll add that if one were to suffer a complete crack through of the seat stay above the brake bridge while riding (because the rider didn't heed out suggestions to monitor the hole frequently) I doubt the rider would even know something was amiss. If you're going to have a frame failure this is about the best location for it to happen with little consequence. There's a second support path with the other stay and the stays are in compression more than bending or tension. Andy