Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Moto Engineering - Recommendation

Options
  • 19-09-2020 4:31pm
    #1
    Keep_Her_Lit
    Registered Users Posts: 723 ✭✭✭


    Hello fellow cyclists, it's a long while since I've posted here but wanted to drop in briefly to give a well deserved recommendation to Bert in Moto Engineering:

    http://www.motoengineering.com/
    087-238-6368
    Dollymount Park, D3

    To give an idea of the standard to which Bert works, here's a sample of his aluminium welding:

    526834.png

    After several years of use, my commuter frames typically fail where the drive side chainstay meets the brace close to the bottom bracket. I've had successful repairs done in the past, so this time I passed the job to Bert. Here's the result:

    526835.png

    There was also a nasty crease on my top tube, caused by my bike being knocked over and falling against a sharp metal rail. Bert filled the crease, smoothed it off and there is now no remaining evidence of the original damage.

    All of this was done for €80, a helluva lot cheaper than a new frame!

    This guy is a master craftsman, not just a welder, and his workshop is an Aladdin's cave of engineering excellence! To clarify, I have no connection to Bert or his business. I simply believe that work of this standard ought to be recognised.

    Bert, if you're reading, big thumbs up from this happy customer.


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    coastwatch
    Registered Users Posts: 908 ✭✭✭coastwatch


    Thanks for posting this.
    It can be hard to find someone who can do small engineering repair jobs, bikes or anything else, so good to see those skills are still around, even in urban dublin, and good to give a shout out.


  • Options
    #3
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,492 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    Keep_Her_Lit wrote: »
    After several years of use, my commuter frames typically fail where the drive side chainstay meets the brace close to the bottom bracket.
    this implies this has happened multiple times - are all the frames the same make?
    and only after 'several years'?


  • Options
    #4
    Keep_Her_Lit
    Registered Users Posts: 723 ✭✭✭Keep_Her_Lit


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    this implies this has happened multiple times - are all the frames the same make?

    Yes, it has happened mutliple times. But over decades and on frames from different manufacturers. So it isn't down to a dodgy batch of frames from one manufacturer.
    and only after 'several years'?

    “Several” is a fairly loose description, admittedly. The frame above (Boardman Hybrid Pro) is now 8 years old.

    For my previous commuter frame, a Scott Vail (also aluminium), it took 6 years for the same failure to occur. It was repaired in similar fashion and I then rode it for another 8 years. That repair was very good and the frame is still sound (apart from stripped bottom bracket threads!). Here it is:

    526896.png

    Prior to the Scott, two steel frames also failed in the same way, one of which was replaced under warranty (a Ridgeback MTB) while the other had been bought secondhand.

    Whenever I clean my bike, I always take a close look all over the frame for evidence of cracks. On the Boardman, I had been keeping an eye on a small crack in the paintwork where the chainstay meets the bottom bracket brace. It was creeping along very slowly. So I recently removed some of the paint and sure enough there was a feint crack in the weld beneath. I think it would have taken quite a while longer to fail completely but no point in waiting for that to happen!

    When I collected my frame from Bert yesterday, he also had a Cube frame in for repair. The owner had fitted a DIY electric conversion. One of the chainstays had completely fractured where it meets the bottom bracket. Exactly the same type of failure.


Advertisement