Dropout repair advice

[Alanirving]

Hi all,

Asking for a friend (honest, for once) who is 6'6", 200lbs and likes to climb out of the saddle. After about 40000km of such treatment his Colnago Master X-Lite has cracked through the driveside rear dropout.

What would people advise? TIG the crack; pull off the (lugged) dropouts and replace, or something else?

Thanks in advance. I realize this thread needs photos, but I think I may need to post a few more times before I can add one.

[Blacklabbikes]

That's a big guy on a light bike.
(edit: Apologies, I was thinking of the Technos which has the rider weight limit)


Either of those will work. (I'd have a preference for the dropout off and a new one on)

I stand by the initial thought - For my money, given the rear end is chromed (so you're looking at a relatively long repair job) and the frame has done a lot of hard work, I would be looking at another frame entirely.

J

[e-RICHIE]

Replace the dropout with a part that's the same as what's being taken out.

[Alanirving]

Thanks for the quick replies, gentlemen.

@Joe my friend's instinct is the same as yours: to hang it on the wall and buy a replacement.

@Richard agreed that would be the best repair option, but I understand those are Colnago proprietary parts and pretty much unobtanium.

[cicli polito]

Pretty sure these dropouts were in the MicroFusione line, which has shut the doors. Most of the product line got absorbed into the Walter/Thecno group, also in Italy and a current business. The standard Walter FP11 dropouts will get you pretty close, though they are more of a vertical than a “semi-horizontal.” The sockets are right on though. Walter has a ton of non line item parts, so it would not surprise me one bit if they were still making these for Colnago.

You’ll have to remove the chrome locally for the repair whether you braze or TIG it, and then you’ll need to verify with your customer how they want to refinish it after the repair.

[Blacklabbikes]

Pretty sure these dropouts were in the MicroFusione line,

Spot on. Am I right in remembering they did yours too @e-RICHIE?

Hadn't realised that Walter had got the old stock though - thanks!

[e-RICHIE]

Spot on. Am I right in remembering they did yours too @e-RICHIE?

Hadn't realised that Walter had got the old stock though - thanks!

No. They've been vapor since the 1980s.
And I think the relationships are a bit different.
MFI produced parts to order; they weren't a maker for the bicycle trade per se.

[cicli polito]

I’m not sure of the exact relationship, as MFI was well before my timeline. e-richie and others will know much more of the history and I’m happy to take a backseat; I.e. MFI was a casting firm who did some work for the bicycle industry, or however that worked. At any rate a few years back I needed to source some specialty Italian dropouts for a repair. I learned that MFI originally made them but I got them,with some help, via Walter. So perhaps some IP, or patterns/design from MFI got purchased by or were otherwise transferred to Walter. Maybe even some physical stock transferred hands but that would surprise me as the physical stock MFI had on hand, if any, would likely be property of the company who contracted MFI to make the parts to begin with. Could even be that Walter just decided to make some old pattern dropouts for whatever odd reason.

My reason for mentioning was that in case the OP does decide to go with the repair, and really wants to go the distance for replacement parts, they might consider inquiring with Walter or Thecno, as there appears to have been some kind of limited crossover between these three companies (and likely others I’ve never heard of) at some point.

[Andrew R Stewart]

If matching the replacement dropout is not to be and available ones don't come close enough one can always do both drop outs. Andy

[Alanirving]

Belated thanks for the further intelligence. My buddy is Italian, so would be able to converse with parts suppliers there should he decide to repair. Still can't attach a picture, but I've put one here for posterity: Flickr