Frame saver?

[tacollie]

Trails vary a lot in Colorado. The western slope is obviously similar to Utah. The mountains can be real nice outside of the snow and mud seasons. Lots of dirt that offers good traction. The front range offers a wide variety of trails. Where I am it is mostly gravel, sand, and sandstone.

Soveriegn the Ritcheys tend to hold up better than a lot of bikes from that era. Just make sure the paint is in good shape and you should be good for a while.

I like hearing about people riding all these steel hardtails.:wings:

 

[tacollie]

Nice color sovereign. Is That logo airbrushed?

 

[TCM]

Why take the risk. Weigle's Frame Saver is made specifically to protect steel frames, is cheap and it works. The cost is less than $15 and if applied correctly will completely cover the inside of the tubes. Once it has set, it is a very thin layer of protection that does not flow and is not at all messy or clogging.

Modern steel bicycle frames are made with very thin gauge tubing which does not hold up to corrosion. Sure the inside of our truck frames are probably unpainted but then again these frames are in some case close to 6mm thick. Bicycle frames on the other hand can have sections of tubing less than 1mm thick. Trust me on this, I had a steel Davidson road frame that rusted through above the BB and this was while living in Colorado, a "dry" state.

Use Weigles and put a 1/8" hole in the very bottom of the bottom bracket shell next to the cable guide to drain water out of the seat tube. This does absolutely nothing to harm the frame but allows water that has run down along the post to drain out. It also protects the bottom bracket bearings which can otherwise be destroyed in very short order if surrounded by water. Of course if your BB shell is solid and not open to the seat tube then this hole is not necessary or even desirable and many Tig welded frames do have this solid style BB shell.

 

[TCM]

I have seen frames rust with frame saver on occasion. Most newer frames have weep holes that allow moisture to dry out. 10-15 years ago builders thought they could weld the tubes shut to prevent rust. This limits weld penetration and potentially traps moisture in. Fat Chance and Ibis were a couple brands that really had that problem.

Honestly, I think is is more important to clean the sweet off your frame as it tends to creep under cable guides where paint coverage can be tricky. I have seen 6 month old aluminum frames with top tubes that have corrossion holes.

Independent Fabrications does not use any breather holes in the construction of their frames and they are some of the best steel models on the market. The top tube, down tube, seat stays, chain stays and fork legs (if spec'd with a steel fork) are completely sealed. This does nothing to prevent the application of a proper tig weld nor does it lead to corrosion problems. Yes there is a very small amount of water vapor (from the air) that is inside the tube at the time of construction . But this moisture it is irrelevant as the oxygen inside the sealed tubes is quickly used up by the formation of a miniscule amount of rust which then creates and anaerobic environment (zero oxygen) that prevents further corrosion.

 

[1x1_Speed_Craig]

Recently powdercoated in APC Green:

Semi O.T...

That's one sexy bike. More pics, please. :sombrero:

 

[tacollie]

Independent Fabrications does not use any breather holes in the construction of their frames and they are some of the best steel models on the market. The top tube, down tube, seat stays, chain stays and fork legs (if spec'd with a steel fork) are completely sealed. This does nothing to prevent the application of a proper tig weld nor does it lead to corrosion problems. Yes there is a very small amount of water vapor (from the air) that is inside the tube at the time of construction . But this moisture it is irrelevant as the oxygen inside the sealed tubes is quickly used up by the formation of a miniscule amount of rust which then creates and anaerobic environment (zero oxygen) that prevents further corrosion.

This is true, but real world welds arn't always "proper". I have seen multiple Indepentent Fab bikes with tiny holes in their welds and therefore not completely sealed. Independant fab is one of the few companies that still tries to seal their tubes for a reason. The other problem with this is it is impossible to back purge. The welds cannot fully penetrate without it. This is not the end of the world and thats why 95% of steel frame builders don't do it. Back purged frames are far stronger than ones that arn't. Don at Anvil has a good article about this. http://anvilbikes.com/?news_ID=22&catID=3

I guess a builder could easily plug their purge hole after the fact. Sorry if I wasn't clear with my earlier post. Also, I am not against Indepentant or anything like that.

 

[tacollie]

Why take the risk. Weigle's Frame Saver is made specifically to protect steel frames, is cheap and it works. The cost is less than $15 and if applied correctly will completely cover the inside of the tubes. Once it has set, it is a very thin layer of protection that does not flow and is not at all messy or clogging.

Modern steel bicycle frames are made with very thin gauge tubing which does not hold up to corrosion. Sure the inside of our truck frames are probably unpainted but then again these frames are in some case close to 6mm thick. Bicycle frames on the other hand can have sections of tubing less than 1mm thick. Trust me on this, I had a steel Davidson road frame that rusted through above the BB and this was while living in Colorado, a "dry" state.

Use Weigles and put a 1/8" hole in the very bottom of the bottom bracket shell next to the cable guide to drain water out of the seat tube. This does absolutely nothing to harm the frame but allows water that has run down along the post to drain out. It also protects the bottom bracket bearings which can otherwise be destroyed in very short order if surrounded by water. Of course if your BB shell is solid and not open to the seat tube then this hole is not necessary or even desirable and many Tig welded frames do have this solid style BB shell.

Did you Davidson have sealed water bottle bosses? A lot of times moisture gets in that way.