Charles,
I just looked at the early DeRosa I have here. It's all original paint a nd graphics; no one has done anything to this frame. Guess what? The slo t is sawn through the lug into the seat tube. No hole or anything at the bottom (except for a small crack ;-). Factory equipment on DeRosa of th e period, I'm afraid.
Once you've got your hands around Ugo's neck and you're really giving hi m the whatfor, don't forget he's probably around 80 years old right now.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
It is what it is.
I finally got around to giving a closer look to a nice De Rosa I bought awhile back. The frame is in superior condition throughout, except for one, really tragic flaw: some idiot decided to widen the slot at the se at-lug clamp for the post, and, not content to saw down through to the e dge of the lug, just hacked his way about 3mm below the point of the lug . He didn't even bother to round the bottom of the new slot, to prevent a crack.
I've seen this on a few really nice old frames, now, and in every case I curse the fool who would do such a thing. Not only did each of these h ack jobs remove way too much material, but every one of them sawed down past the lug. Something I just cannot fathom. How could a person be th at stupid and even be smart enough to know what to DO with a hacksaw?
'course, I know what I'd like to do with it, but I wouldn't say in polit e company, ya know?
Naturally, I'd love to have five minutes alone with the clown who did th is damage to my De Rosa, but since that particular satisfaction is denie d me, my question is, what to do?
there is no crack in the seat-tube--yet--probably because the clamp has not been loosened or tightened much since the butchery was done to cause a crack to start. I'll probably take some very small, round files and remove the immediate stress-riser at the bottom of the slot...but a crac k could still get started, since the tube is so thin, even if in a butte d area (or would it? I've seen it on other frames).
The one time I talked with a frame-builder about a repair for such a pro blem, he said you could either braze a sleeve inside the top of the seat -tube, or remove/replace the seat-tube.
Neither of these methods is acceptable to me, since this De Rosa is so p retty otherwise, in original paint and graphics (it looks practically un used, except for this one problem).
Would it be possible to braze a piece of lug-material over the outside o f the slot in the seat-tube, butt the new lug-material up against the ex isting seat-lug shoreline, then cut a new slot, or reshape the existing one to make it shorter?. Seems to me not as much paint would be ruined, and a touch-up would be easier.
Framebuilders! Anyone here know a good fix for this problem? I'll send the frame to you if you can do the job in a reasonable amount of time.. <g>
Thanks for any and all suggestions on how to fix this.
Charles "put down that hacksaw RIGHT NOW!" Andrews Los Angeles