Dented frame - surgeon wanted

[Yang]

I have a kona road bike ' date=' the scadium kona kona with the easton carbon back stays.  It is the only one in South Africa, that I know of.  (had it imported).  I used to have a Kona Haole (Blue paint) (also a road bike) which is easton ultralite (I gave that one to my brother)  THere are about twenty of these in the country. [/quote']

 

I have one of the 20 Kona Haoles, with Ultegra/ 105 components- my first road bike, now used for training only. But damned if my best times over my 50km and 36km time trial patches, over many months of training, is still on that Kona, and not on my Giant TCR 0 with Record and Chorus groupset.

 

This means I am having a crisis of faith in my Giant. Should I use my Kona to race with, or carry on with my Giant?

 

The haole is a great frame, made out of easton ultralite alu.  It was specced in the 105 brakette to make if affordable.  You can lighten it up a lot by dumping the kona thumb-up seatpot for a carbon fibre one, change the front fork to a EC90, nice light stem and handle bars, and maybe upgrade to ultegra/ centaur.  This should bring it into the 7-8 kg range, which is very respectable.  Maybe you need move the groupo from the giant and use the giant for training and the Kona for racing?

 

Hadn't thought of that- thanks. I don't want to hijack this thread onto a technical one, so will start a new one on thisissue.

 

My Kona top tube has a dent from falling against a fence post. Its about 20 cm's along the post from the stem. I want to pull out the dent. I am aware of the risks. It doesn't affect the bike's performance. Its more of an aesthetic issue, and if I am going to move my Campag groupset from the Giant to the Kona I would like to do a bit of pimping up. Am I completely wasting my time, or is there bike surgeon out there who can pull out the dent?

 

 

[TNT1]

Dunno about locally, I had a Pinarello with a dent once, sent the frame back to Italy (yes, in the days when they only made frames in Italy - now you might have to send your Prince to Taiwan...), and it came back perfect...

[Johan Bornman]

Dont mess with dents in frames made of fancy materials. The only way to pull out a dent is to drill a hole in its centre, screw in a nasty self-tapping screw and yank on it with a slide hammer. You don't want to do this especially since closing up the hole requires a weld, which destroys the tube's heat treatment.

 

Have a spraypainter fill it with body putty, paint over it and live with it.

 

 

[R2S2]

I agree with Johan wholeheartedly.

 

The aluminium your frame is made from needs be annealed before you can work on it, and then heat treated again afterwards otherwise it WILL crack.  Rather have the dent filled and the paint touched up.

[Yang]

Thanks all.