My 1997 Yo. Rode till it broke, repaired it and its good again..

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yoeddynz

New member
Hello all,

Ages ago, 2011 I had posted up on this forum about my sad broken Yo eddy frame woes with an ask for some advice. See here...

http://www.fatcogs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=14668#post14668

Wow- Time flies!!!

Here is an update, a happy one at that, is here.

My friend who was going to mitre the downtube and weld it in place for me was going through some tough times and I ended up getting the frame and tube back to do myself. By this time I had become an OK tig welder having done a fair bit of alloy welding and bit of steel welding in the fabricating of my latest Viva engine swap (see sig..)
However I was by no means and expert and I knew the welds would not be that pretty, but they would be strong. So bugger it I thought- I'll have a go myself! It turned out ok too :)







Now this took place back in Sept 2013 in my little shed next to the housetruck when we lived at a holiday park. We have now since bought, cleared and worked an 12 acre block of land and while that was going on the frame just got moved about collecting dust. It sat on the wall of our new workshop where I took this photo last year.. ( Sadly the Yeti FRO isn't mine. It belongs to a friend who was visiting.. so lush a bike!)



Hannah pinched the White bros forks for her Broeddy and my '90 Yo finally went through its third BB so it too was up on blocks. My Turner Flux I had bought to 'replace' the Yo was a great ride but had gone through two sets of bushes and was cracking at the seat tube brace. Plus it was 'complicated' fun compared to a sweet steel hardtail. My Genesis Croix de fer was getting a lot more of a hammering because it was closer to the ride I wanted.

Then we booked to ride the Heaphy track and I needed a geared bike with rack mounts. I could have dusted off the 1990 Bontrager I had bought in the UK to ride through the Himalayas but I actually saw this as a good shift kick up the bum to finally clean, paint and reassemble my old love. So I did just that.

The paint job is a quick rattle can job and I used some old spare stickers I had my cousin make left over from when I restored the '90 Yo back in 1998. It will do for now until later on when I get a proper two pack paint job. I had recently bought some colour matched spray cans for my Viva HB Estate I'm currently resurrecting. I like the colour and once on the frame it really looked the part.

Photos of the doing...



Photos of the done..





Finished bike..





That ever so practical disc rear end..



After all the rush to get it finished my knee played up whilst bending awkwardly whilst cutting a cat flap hole in a wall on our truck of all things! :roll: So rather than risk further injury we postponed the ride for a few weeks. I'll post back and let you know how we get on. We did go out the other day for a gentle ride, Hannah on her Broeddy and me on this. Boy was it fantastic to ride again. Most of my lats few months riding has been on my freshly repaired '90 Yo singlespeed (explains knee woes then..) and this bike is just basically a much smoother better braked version. It feels way way nicer to ride than my full sus. Why I cant explain. Just a nicer steering more nimble feeling chassis. That simple good steel feel. I'm stoked to have it back! :D


Alex
 
I-ROBOT

I-ROBOT

Active member
So apparently I missed your original post back in '11. Your welding does not look all that bad. Having a machine that has the ability to pulse the current has big advantages in welding thin-wall tubing.

I'm curious as to what you used for filler metal? I'm hoping it was ER80S-D2 wire. Who manufactured the tube that you used? Did you have access to a frame jig to line it up? How did you check the alignment after the welding was completed? I assume that the head tube is a 1-1/8"? Did the original downtube have a gusset at the head tube joint?

So many questions...

Hope it holds up for you - congrats

Scott
 
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yoeddynz

New member
Hiya and cheers,

The down tube is a Reynolds 853. Just the right size and nice and strong. I used Er70 rods which from what I could find out would be fine. I certainly dont think it'll break at the welds as there is good penetration into the head tube- showing through from the inside.

Typically I have now done a fair bit more thin walled tig welding since and I get neater every time. Still not top notch neat but probably better than these first efforts.
My machine does have pulse but I have not used it other than very thin stuff. At the time I used a foot pedal. That became faulty and I have now taught myself to weld with out a foot control which has made me so much more adaptable and better for doing all sorts of tricky access jobs. Again.. practice practice practice. Im getting there :)

The orginal down tube did have a gusset and it was the typical fully welded one with a point. The crack started right on that point too! To me it makes no sense to have a stress riser right there, possibly near the end of the internal butting as well. I much prefer the gussets on my Bontrager.

The bike did have a hard life. Not jumping but lots of very techy steep down hills and rocks. I'm only 80kgs but I figure it all added up and started fatiguing at that point.

No frame jig or cold setting etc afterwards . I just checked the seat tube and head tube still lined up as I tacked it. Honestly I feel the whole "these frames are cold set to within .001" jargon is well over the top. Considering a cyclist can jump on a cheap obviously very bent bike and within a few meters adapt to how it steers I think getting things so 'perfect' is just OTT. Put it this way.. I can jump on this bike and ride it no handed fine. Straight enough for me then. It still steers just like it did so I'm pretty happy with its alignment :)

Im not so happy with the durability of my rattle can paint job though... but that can be sorted one day :)

Alex
 
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