newblue

I made an extremely stupid move and accidentally dropped a ball bearing into the frame of my Motobecane mixte when I was changing headset bearings. It rolled down into the frame tubes. It seems to stubbornly refuse to roll out no matter how I rotate the frame around. Anyone have any advice, or should I just leave it there and live with occasional little clanging noises?

Tbone5

If you can't stand the rattle two ideas:

Expanding foam from hardware store or some glue. Shoot it into the the offending area and then rattle the ball until it gets imbedded in the goo.

Shamusftw 

I did have an issue with this on my bike at one point. I just used two decently strong rare earth magnets I had laying around to fish it out. Was super easy tbh. I'd try using some magnets if I were you. I actually have them just in case I drop a bearing on the ground or something.

jiangshi

If it went in, it will come out. Have you tried a magnet? I would use magnetic pick up tool.

Chombi1 

Use avmagnetto coax the bearing down the tubes angle towards an opening.
A strong "rare earth" type magnet would be best, if you can find one......

Vintage_Cyclist

They're not that rare to obtain. Amazon, and others, sell them.

They have various applications. If you have an old PC hard drive, that you're done with, they'll be two in there, about the size of a quarter.

thumpism 

I used a few drops of glue squeezed into the hole and then moved the frame around until the bearing landed in it. Let it set up and now things are quiet.

You know, you've defied the odds by dropping the bearing like that. If you were being paid to make that happen you'd never be able to do it.

easyupbug 

A shot of large gap foam stopped a chain stay cable tube from rattling 7 or 8 years ago, still no rattle.

khatfull

This is timely for me. As I was working with the fork of my Crescent I found out I have one of those little balls of brazing material floating around in one of the blades. I bet there's a vent hole I could shoot a tad of the foam into.

Hmmmm.

jpaschall

I've got the same problem on the Libéria I've been working on. Seems to be brazing in one of the fork blades AND the top tube. No vents that I can see.

khatfull

I haven't ventured out to the garage to look at the fork close yet. I know I've had some forks that have a vent hole. Here to hoping!

newblue

I know. It's crazy! It rolled down into one of the twin stays. Feels like I'm playing an adult version of one of those little ball-in-the-maze games.

satbuilder 

Having not used frame saver yet, I thought when this stuff was sprayed into the frame it eventually became very viscous. If so, you would probably eliminate the ball bearing rattle while also preserving the frame

Scooper

Most framebuilders drill vent holes at tubing joints to allow gasses to escape during the brazing process.

Since the OP's bike is a mixte and the twin stays have a smaller diameter than a diamond frame with larger top tube and down tube, the vent holes in the head tube will be smaller. However, if the ball bearing got into stay it should also come out.

Try positioning the frame in a work stand so that the stay is vertical with the head tube at the bottom. Since the stays attach to the head tube off the head tube centerline, the frame should be positioned in the stand so the head tube vent hole for that off center stay is at the bottom. At that point, moving a magnet around inside the head tube in the vicinity of the stay joint may work to get the bearing out.

Luck plays a big part.

This illustration of a head tube vent hole is from a Peugeot catalog.

dabac

I'd be wary about using expanding foam in a frame.
I'd worry about it trapping moisture and causing local corrosion.

thinktubes 

I'd be worried about the foam trapping moisture too.

I'd make every effort to get the bugger out. Failing that, I'd go with Framesaver or Linseed oil.

Yet another reason to switch to needle-bearing headsets.

pcb 

This isn't at all helpful, but back in my bike shop days you always risked having your shop mates drop a bb down your seat tube if you made the stupid mistake of going to the bathroom while your bike was in a workstand. The trick was to gop 'em up with Phil grease first so they wouldn't necessarily rattle around right away. You tried to see how many you could get down there before the poor sap noticed. More than once the poor sap was me.

The other thing we did was peel the Made in Taiwan stickers off the cheap floor bikes and stick 'em on our buds' high-end Japanese or Italian frames. Back in the early '80s that wasn't a sign of quality...

Lascauxcaveman 

You're right, that wasn't helpful. But it was pretty dang funny

khatfull

Argh, no hole. Damn. I'll refer to it as "character" I suppose.

newblue

Thanks for the tips and stories. :-) I even took a hard drive apart to get those magnets, but alas even with them, the ball bearing remained stubborn. It will remain in its hiding place in the frame for now, and travel with me and the Motobecane until such time as I have more patience and stronger magnets.

jonwvara 

"More patience and stronger magnets" is a nice phrase, and one you don't see every day.

Later edit: A Google search for the exact phrase "more patience and stronger magnets" turned up no hits. So nice work, newblue--you may be the first ever to combine those five words.

newblue

Thank you. I try. :-)