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Help Frame repair for a steel frame bike

kyoazu

Maximum Pace
Nov 5, 2014
69
36
Hello,

I bought bloaker's beautiful Somec 80's bike two weeks ago but on the way home today I turned a corner near house and crashed into a wall. Aside from my head hurting, I'm fine but the result is that the down tube and seat tubes have a dent in them near where they meet the seat tube and my front wheel won't fit into the fork.

Here is a picture:

At the moment, I'm trying to keep calm but I'm so angry and annoyed at myself for not being more careful; I can't believe I crashed so close to home. I'm weighing up my options but it looks like I can either buy a new frame or repair this one. Eitherway, I'm in way over my head considering I don't even know how to build a bike nor can I afford one for awhile....

If anyone has any advice or knows where to get steel frames repaired and the cost, please let me know. Thanks.
 

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How is your Japanese, can you contact a bike shop in the first instance?
these guys http://www.yousetuya.com/contents/naosi.html do frame repairs, cost is dependent on labour and wether you want a paint job at the same time.
In the Tokyo area try http://www.cherubim.jp/store/2013/07/repaint-repair-custom.html
Might be an idea to put the somec away for a while and just swap parts to a cheapie frame and save some cash for a full repair and restore(if the frame means that much, but it is still pretty new to you). On the plus side better the bike than some body parts.
 
Very sorry to see your bike.
I was very interested in buying that as well.
In the end I didn't because I worried it was a touch small for me.
Lovely bike.
I'm no expert but I don't think I could trust a frame as crumpled as that.
It's in a load-bearing area and moreover the load will increase exponentially every time you apply the front brake.
Might be time to buy a frameset and transfer the parts over.
Keep Bloaker's ex-steed in your place as a point of conversation.
Like I said,I'm no expert,who knows what marvels of repairing the pros can do!
 
I'm sorry to read this. But it's good that you are (more or less) OK.

Get the bike repaired!

Like I said,I'm no expert,who knows what marvels of repairing the pros can do!

The interwebs, that's who. So let's see what marvels of repairing the pros can do. (Some nasty stuff on that page. Not for minors or the squeamish.) It might be easier to deal with a company in Tokyo, but this one-man shop in Sendai -- "Amvna", pronounced Amūna -- might charge less. There's a (six-year-old) comment in English about the place here.
 
Ouch! Glad your body came out of it ok. I also had my eye on that bike.

If this happened to me I would saw the bike into thirds, have a frame builder remove the wonky bits of down tube and top tube, and install s &s couplers a la this:
p_rod_004.jpg

That way you could preserve all but a tiny bit of the original tubing.
 
Thank you everyone for kind comments and helpful suggestions. I'm mostly OK for now; still angry at myself but much better than I was yesterday.

How is your Japanese, can you contact a bike shop in the first instance?
these guys http://www.yousetuya.com/contents/naosi.html do frame repairs, cost is dependent on labour and wether you want a paint job at the same time.
In the Tokyo area try http://www.cherubim.jp/store/2013/07/repaint-repair-custom.html
Might be an idea to put the somec away for a while and just swap parts to a cheapie frame and save some cash for a full repair and restore(if the frame means that much, but it is still pretty new to you). On the plus side better the bike than some body parts.

Thanks for the links. My Japanese is OK; enough to explain what happened and possibly enough to understand what the repair options are. A friend is going to take me to a bike shop on Saturday to assess the situation and see what can be done although I'm 99% sure I'll have to either repair it or get a new frameset.

That's where RTAs are most likely - close to home. Please take care.

Yup, I really should have been more careful. I definitely will be taking more care from now on.

Ouch! Glad to hear you are OK. You could try contacting Kalavinka who will correspond in English. Also there are some prices for repairs listed on their website http://www.kalavinka-bikes.com

Cheers, I'll drop them an email and see if I can get a quote since they don't have top tube and down tube prices on their site.

Very sorry to see your bike.
I was very interested in buying that as well.
In the end I didn't because I worried it was a touch small for me.
Lovely bike.
I'm no expert but I don't think I could trust a frame as crumpled as that.
It's in a load-bearing area and moreover the load will increase exponentially every time you apply the front brake.
Might be time to buy a frameset and transfer the parts over.
Keep Bloaker's ex-steed in your place as a point of conversation.
Like I said,I'm no expert,who knows what marvels of repairing the pros can do!

Thanks. I'm really sad that I damaged it; many folks have commented on how great the bike is and I feel that me crashing it was a huge disservice to everyone who has ridden and seen it.

I'm sorry to read this. But it's good that you are (more or less) OK.

Get the bike repaired!



The interwebs, that's who. So let's see what marvels of repairing the pros can do. (Some nasty stuff on that page. Not for minors or the squeamish.) It might be easier to deal with a company in Tokyo, but this one-man shop in Sendai -- "Amvna", pronounced Amūna -- might charge less. There's a (six-year-old) comment in English about the place here.

Thank you so much for this. Before reading this post, I was ready to write of the frame but seeing that site gave me hope that it's possible to repair it for a reasonable price and really improved my mood.

From what I gather: the top tube is 14,000 yen and the down tube is 16,000 yen. He'd have to recoat and peel it (剥離・塗替 フレーム& フォーク?) which is 24,000 yen leading me to a total of around 54,000 yen before shipping. I feel that is a reasonable, although I could possibly be forgetting something.

Ouch! Glad your body came out of it ok. I also had my eye on that bike.

If this happened to me I would saw the bike into thirds, have a frame builder remove the wonky bits of down tube and top tube, and install s &s couplers a la this:
View attachment 10237

Thanks! That actually looks amazing. I've never heard of S&S couplers but I'd totally be into doing this. No idea how I'd explain this in Japanese but I guess I can show them pictures of it.
 
I've never heard of S&S couplers but I'd totally be into doing this. No idea how I'd explain this in Japanese but I guess I can show them pictures of it.

Here's a page in Japanese that talks a bit about, and shows, what it calls S&S カプラー. [Cough] I fear that they might add quite a bit to the price.

PS prompted by @Half-Fast Mike : Yes, S&S カプリング. Here's a page pointing out that taking the S&S option adds 63,000 yen to the price of a new steel bike called the "Hobo".
 
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Ouch, that's definitely too expensive for me...thanks anyway guys.

An update on the bike: My friend took me to a bike shop to talk about my options. It will be upwards of 60,000 yen to get it fixed and from what I understood, the person fixing it would need a Columbus Record pipe to make sure the dimensions of the tubes remain the same.

I'm going to consider my options over the next month but it looks like I'll be retiring this beauty and buying a new frameset. I'm still really sad and frustrated at myself but I guess it's time to forgive myself.
 
I'm going to consider my options over the next month but it looks like I'll be retiring this beauty and buying a new frameset. I'm still really sad and frustrated at myself but I guess it's time to forgive myself.

It's time to prepare for riding. The weather promises to be good from Tuesday.

Unless you're really pressed for space, store the Somec till your finances perk up. I mean, the price asked is annoyingly high but not devastatingly so. Meanwhile, I'd be looking closely at this auction, and probably others too.
 
@kyoazu , you're spoiled for choice: there's a large Panasonic, and with just one day to go there's this Miyata LeMans, (Same size and colour as mine, as it happens. No, not mine, which has Suntour parts.) I didn't bother looking further; there may well be more.

NB the Miyata and a lot of other oldies don't have compact cranks and are thus designed less for you as you are than for you as you'd like to be. Well, cranks can be changed.
 
@microcord Thanks alot for looking out for me, I really appreciate. I've been a bit down since the incident and haven't really wanted to think about cycling but recently I've been feeling alot more positive about it. I'm just luckily that I wasn't injured any further. That and it's probably best not to dwindle with sadness anymore. :)

I looked at Yahoo Auctions a couple of times in the past but for some reason, I can't make an account. I always get an error of some sort, even though all the information I've supplied is correct...

Also, thanks for the information about the compact cranks. I'm not very knowledgable about bikes to be honest but from what I've gathered, I can't put a compact crank on a standard chainset. However, I still have all the parts from my Somec and @bloaker kindly informed me that I'll need look for a frame that has a british threaded bottom bracket so pretty much everything can be transfered over, yes?

I'm gonna keep looking for some new framesets and budget around 60,000 for now. Hopefully I can get something nice for that amount, although 58cm frames are pretty damn hard to come back in Japan...
 
Are you dead set on something vintage?
If not maybe you should consider something new. Soma ES, Soma Smoothie, and Surly Pacer are modern steel road frames within your budget . They're not as nice as your Somec, but for 60000 yen you're not going to find much that is. The Soma bikes in particular seem quite nice for the price.
 
The Soma's are nice. I have owned two of their MTB frames. Chuck is riding one of them, I still own the other.
The only downside replacing the Somec with a Soma - regarding the existing parts - The headset/stem/bars/seatpost will not be compatible. So that eats up just a little bit of the budget.
 
There are threadless stems out with 26 and 25.4 mm clamps, so the handlebars should at least be salvageable I think.
 
The Soma frames seem interesting but NB forks cost extra. Velo Orange alternatives cost a bit more but include forks.

Are you planning to ask a bike shop to take care of the transplants, etc? If so, and if you're in the south Tokyo area, I recommend HiRoad, whose proprietor Mr Aoyama looks kindly at people with odd equipment and odd requests, and who speaks English. (He does not repair frames.) Of course his time will cost you money, but if you are going to pay some store for a skilled person's time, then this is a good one. He would also have recommendations for frames, although frames and other components bought through him are limited to those marketed in Japan. NB the opening times, and if at all possible phone or email before a visit.
 
For the repair option, you might try Vlad at Equilibrium. Not sure if he normally does repairs as opposed to new builds, but worth asking.
http://equilibriumcycleworks.com/
Gunjira (TCC member) and others (Hiroshi at C Speed in Takatsu/Kawasaki) speak very highly of him -- both workmanship and responsiveness etc. And you can do the whole thing in English.
 
Hey folks, just want to update you with the current situation.

I did some thinking and decided to purchase an Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra from eBay. From what I've read, it seems to be the closest thing to my Somec it terms of comfort and performance and it seems to have the most compatibility with my existing parts. @bloaker has very kindly offered to help me build the bike.

Just want to thank you all for your support and helpful responses! I'll update you once the bike is made!
 
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