Help and Advice please - drilled rear stays found

[velomentary]

Hello - in the light of day and pre bike pick up excitement I did not , until I got home realised these marks on the rear stays of a bike I picked up today. I personally think they have been previously drilled and filled for a rear rack but the previous owner says it was cosmetic. I'm not wanting to get into a lot of debate over it but surely we shouldn't be seeing these kinds of marks on a rear stay? Is it something you take or a definite no? I have OCD and I can't get past these marks personally. Any advice before I return. Thanks for your help.

 

[klunkrider]

Looks like some braze ons were either removed intentionally or broke off, possibly due to an overloaded rack?

I’d be confident there’s no structural impact. Is there bare metal or have they been painted over? I’d file the remaining braze off, it’s probably silver and will be relatively soft/easy to remove. It’s unlikely you’ll get it cleaned up properly without also removing some paint though.

 

[klunkrider]

PS, stays don’t look too have been drilled to me. Braze ons can just be attached on the surface of the tube which I’d say is the case here.

 

[velomentary]

Ahhh that's such a relief. So the bike should be structurally safe to ride - I'm ok with the remnants of braze ons. I was just worried it was holes in the frame. Thanks

 

[ishaw]

Could even have been a canti bridge. I've removed a few.

 

[Ren Rawbor]

I'm not quite as sure TBH, I do agree it's something that was there that now is gone, but to my untrained eye it looks almost as if it/they were ripped from the stays and JB weld gooped in the resultant holes.

Looking closer, it does seem possible there are in fact no holes but only way to know would be to carefully dig out the filler. If it were me, I'd probably return it unless it's something super rare you're not likely to find/afford again.

Then again, if it IS structural they'd only pass it off on someone else so I'd be tempted to go down @klunkrider 's suggestion of carefully filing down & if any holes appear then go from there (scrap it or have repaired).

You said you didn't want a huge debate on it, and here's me giving you my internal dialogue's own rambling crap lol sorry.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Brazed on rack mounts, short or long, often on a decent quality 70s touring frame. This one has broken perhaps in a similar way.

 

[klunkrider]

I'm not quite as sure TBH, I do agree it's something that was there that now is gone, but to my untrained eye it looks almost as if it/they were ripped from the stays and JB weld gooped in the resultant holes.

There’d be no reason for the builder to drill or cut into the stay. Loads of braze ons that mount on the surface which are less work to fit and less risk. Recently, bottle bosses are often repurposed as mudguard and rack eyes and these do require drilling a hole but the shape would be different and you have to do a pretty bad job of brazing a bottle boss into a tube in order for the braze to fail before the threads just strip out of the boss.

If a rack was fitted on surface mount braze ons and overloaded it could, maybe, rip some of the tube away but I’d expect a much larger and more irregular area of damage plus deformation of the tube before it had torn.

 

[klunkrider]

Posted that before looking again at the photo posted by @bikeworkshop.

I think corrosion has been a significant factor in that failure which of course it could be in the op’s case too.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Metal fatigue - the braze is more flexible than the stay tube wall.
Corrosion doesn't help either.