degan 

I guess drewed isn't the right term, but a previous owner did take a drill to the frame without really knowing what they were doing.

The bike is a 1993(?) KHS Aero Comp. It's very light and belongs to my girlfriend. Pretty neat curved seattube and non-circular downtube (its triangular with rounded off edges, not sure if that shape has a specific name).

Anyway, a previous owner drilled two holes into the downtube on one of the flat sections, as you can see in the picture. While we were trying it out the waterbottle cage was slightly loose and I assumed they just needed tightening and wasn't anything serious. We took it home and immediately found out that the holes for the cage were not threaded and looked to be non-standard.

Is this a serious problem? I've seen things like this lead to cracks and whatnot. She's been riding on the bike without any problems for months. Also, we never ride in the rain and its always stored inside. Can it be fixed? It would be nice to have a water bottle cage there, but we wouldn't want to wreck the paint by having braze-ons added.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

DJE

WNG

What picture?

Wino Ryder

My My, the sh't people do. I have no earthly idea why someone would drill holes like that in the downtube. My advice is to braze it up and repaint the area with a close matching automotive touch up paint.

redcaymatt

I think those are for riv-nuts. here's a vid that show's how it's done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ssW67QZRI

busdriver1959

The holes are off to the side of the tube centerline. If you stuck a waterbottle there, it would be off to one side from the way the pictures look. There are some CO2 cartridge holders that are meant to attach to the bottle bosses and position the cartridge to the side of the bottle. I wonder if the driller wanted to use one of those but put the cartridge on the tube centerline. I hope that explanation makes sense. I think you could put rivnuts in there and use the holes. I just don't really understand their positioning.

degan 

The riv-nuts sounds like an interesting idea. Is that something shops do regularly? I don't currently have too many tools at my disposal and the holes would have to be widened since they're just about the exact size of the bolts used to attach cages.
@Busdriver - The holes are off to the side. I believe that is because of the non-roundness of the tube. The tube is triangular with the point facing upwards. I believe they put the holes there because its flat and would have been difficult to make the holes right in the center, especially if you're doing by eye in your garage, which is what I believe the case was. Either way, having a cage there doesn't impede peddling in any way (she rode it around with the cage there before we bought it).

Chombi

Definitely a homemade "bodge" to mount a bottle on an aero profile frame tube. The paint scratch going across the upper hole seems that it could been a resut of s drill bit "walking" on the previous owner when drilling the hole. Rivnuts should work, but then, hanging the bottle off to the side in the wind kills all the purpose of that aero shaped frame tube.
I'd just have the holes brazed over and painted over and use an underseat bottle holder instead on the bike, but unfortunately brazing over the holes isn't always an available option to many C&Vers.....

WNG

Yikes! Shame what people do to a nice bike.
I'd try to have the holes filled either by brazing or welding.
I'd use a Minoura strap mount for the bottle cage at the correct spot.

cyclotoine

The shop I used to work in had riv-nuts and the tool, We had to tighten up riv-nuts all the time. That is a weird spot for the holes and I am sure someone put them there, however, there is no reason you can't throw a couple riv nuts in there and put a bottle cage on if you would like.

Personally I would not subject the tube to any heat just to fill those holes, i would find some rubber plus the right size, stick them in and paint them. It's a rider not a show bike and the heat in that area of that thing tube is not a good thing. You could also use some bondo or other body filler to fill them and then sand it down yourself.

degan 

Aerodynamics is not that big of an issue. I'm leaning towards the riv-nuts since the bike wouldn't otherwise have any bottle mounts. Also, I live sort of in the middle of nowhere and the closest bike shop is run by a total turd-burglar and I try not to give them any business if it can be avoided.