HELP! I teared off the eyelets (?) holding my water bottle!

[Titiritero]

A couple of days ago I parked my bike on a wooden bench, but then it fell off to the other side. With such luck that the bottle cage hit a rock on the ground, and since it was carrying a bottle full of water, the impact pulled both bottle and cage from the frame, tearing off the bolts and also the "eyelets" (I don't really know how to call them) holding everything to the frame, see the pictures.

First I thought they were rivnuts, but looking at them they are different, and also apparently rivnuts are used in aluminium or carbon frames, not steel. It seems as if they were welded into the frame just at the "collar".

Anyway, what would you suggest I do? Going to a frame builder to fix it is not feasible due to my current location in rural middle-of-nowhere Germany, plus I doubt it would be cost effective and might ruin the paint job. I am thinking in just applying the best glue I can find and hope for the best but open to hear alternatives.

Bike is a Breezer Lighting Team, one of those re-editions they did at the beginning of the 2010's, with very thin steel tubing. Thanks in advance!

 

[kingbling]

cheapest and simple options are either rivnuts or glueing them or both ? not many options available to you, I'd go with some rivnuts personally as I've never had issues with using them in steel fixings but it will depend on how much they will close up...

 

[onone456]

I'd replace them with Rivnuts..

 

[onegoodbike]

If you choose to go down the 'glueing them back in route', then can I suggest something along the lines of Araldite Steel two part epoxy?. It worked well for on a repair I did a few years back, although there wasn't much torque involved in its use post-repair it did set rock solid.

 

[greencat]

Whatever you do keep a close eye on the surrounding frame tube afterwards. I did something similar in Tunisia and about a year later cracks started spidering out from one of the eyelets.

 

[Titiritero]

Thanks for all the answers. I think I'll go for the glue, and then add a ziptie to the bottle cage for extra safety.

As a warning to others, I think the reason for this issue was that I recently changed the bottle cage to a Lezyne Power Cage, which are famous for holding the bottles very firmly. My previous flimsy cage would have expelled the bottle at the impact, reducing the force applied to the frame, but this one kept the bottle and that caused the problem. Strong is good, but too strong can sometimes be counterproductive.

 

[dyna-ti]

An interesting vid, showing the aspects of the process of setting rivnuts