Drilling a frame?

[Beaver]

I want a dropper on my fatty. There are not many non internal ones out there so I got thinking about drilling my bb shell. Anyone done it? Do frames with internal dropper cable routing do anything special to their frames there?

[kidwoo]

Steel frame: Give'er

Aluminum Frame: most likely give'r

Carbon frame: WTF is wrong with you?

I haven't done it personally but friends have.



Don't do the bb though. Run the cable along the top of the downtube and then go in the bottom of the seat tube.


And just fyi there are lots of non-internal droppers around.

[stuckathuntermtn]

KS Lev is your friend

[Beaver]

Lots available but lots more at better prices for internal routing.

[cmcrawfo]

I have drilled holes in several frames BB shells over the years without any problems.

I have never drilled into carbon before... but Steel, Al, Ti... all super straight forward.

There are several road cycling teams that routinely drill their carbon frames BB shells.... drilling through the carbon can cause it to delam, but if you use a proper (and sharp) drill bit, and don't force the drill (let the drill do the cutting) it should work out just fine.... not that I would ever try it on my own carbon bike, but guys who know way more about carbon than me seem to think it's ok to do it.

[Chugachjed]

I thought you were talking about one of these

[bagtagley]

Different bike, but...

http://forums.mtbr.com/turner/stealt...me-917427.html

[Beaver]

No carbon in my life. It's an aluminum hard tail fatbike. I figure drill a hole buy a rubber grommet frm an auto parts store, put it all together then give it a little squirt of silicone to make sure it seals out water.

[cmcrawfo]

No carbon in my life. It's an aluminum hard tail fatbike. I figure drill a hole buy a rubber grommet frm an auto parts store, put it all together then give it a little squirt of silicone to make sure it seals out water.

Forget the silicone. It doesn't need to be water tight. The most common reason BB shells get drilled is to allow water to drain out of the frame.

[El Chupacabra]

What about drilling out a water bottle mount? (if there is one on the seat tube)

Any advantage of this vs drilling some other place on the frame?

[bluenext]

Kidwoo knows what he's talking about. But why void warranty if you don't have to? Ks lev's cable is attached to the post so it doesn't move up and down with the seat. Easy access and easy to service. Best of both worlds.

[kidwoo]

Kidwoo knows what he's talking about. But why void warranty if you don't have to? Ks lev's cable is attached to the post so it doesn't move up and down with the seat. Easy access and easy to service. Best of both worlds.

Well to be fair, I'm not sure he's checked on planet earth yet when shopping for external vs. internally routed posts.

[jm2e]

Personally, I think the "stealth" dropper phenomenon is way overblown and misstated. First you run your cable externally along the downtube. Then you go through an unnecessary hole to allow you to "hide" that last 15% of cable that would otherwise sit flush against your seat tube. But, in order to make things all stealthy, you need a bunch of extra cable hanging out the front of the bike so that you have enough slack to actually pull the post occasionally. Sure, you can crank your bars all the way to the right every time you do this, but you'll still need a good bit more cable length than you'd need on an externally routed cable. The guys at 9point8 actually told me I could clean it up by simply resigning myself to removing the trigger actuator every time I wanted to pull the post. Either way it's now a bit of a procedure every time you want to pull the post or redo the cable.
Stick with the externally routed LEV. 1000x cleaner and more user friendly. Well, until it starts sagging.

[scrublover]

It's not about just hiding the cable. It's so nice to not have the cable moving around. A stupid little thing, but it's nice.

Yeah, sure there is the Lev, and Gravity Dropper. I'd take the GD over the Lev (based on my KS experiences) any day.

It's really not that much work. Four Reverb Stealths on our bikes. Yes, they need more care and feeding than some others. A price I'm quite happy and willing to pay.

I've drilled two alloy and two carbon frames in the past few years, all seat tube spots above the BB junction. Never had any issues. Sharp bits, start small and work larger, de-burr/file/sand/smooth the edges. No worries.

YMMV, do it at your own risk, blahblahblah, may void warranty.

[Beaver]

OK, so I drilled it and it works. Life goes on.

But now I think I might want to drill more holes in a different bike. I want to move the battery on my cruiser from the rear rack to the down tube. There are no water bottle braise ons so I'm thinking 2 holes all the way through the tube with bolts to hold the battery bracket on. Am I fucked, is this a bad idea?

[cmcrawfo]

OK, so I drilled it and it works. Life goes on.

But now I think I might want to drill more holes in a different bike. I want to move the battery on my cruiser from the rear rack to the down tube. There are no water bottle braise ons so I'm thinking 2 holes all the way through the tube with bolts to hold the battery bracket on. Am I fucked, is this a bad idea?

I don't really understand how this questions differs from the original?

I am going to say drill it, some people who think they know more than me are going to say dont .... someone is going to remind you of the crazy swiss cheese bikes of the 80's .... and in the end you are going to drill it anyway, and ride happily ever after.

[Mazderati]

That seems like a pretty reasonable summary of things to come.

[jono]

OK, so I drilled it and it works. Life goes on.

But now I think I might want to drill more holes in a different bike. I want to move the battery on my cruiser from the rear rack to the down tube. There are no water bottle braise ons so I'm thinking 2 holes all the way through the tube with bolts to hold the battery bracket on. Am I fucked, is this a bad idea?

I was thinking cmcrawfo had this pretty well covered, but I'll add one thing since you said you were going to drill all the way through the tube. If going all the way through you might be able to give yourself a bit more restful nights if you put a reinforcing spacer into that hole. Best case you braze it on both ends with a little reinforcement laid onto the tube surface. Worst case you let it sit in there loosely and all it does is keep you from clinching down on the tube as your bolt gets tight. In between maybe it could be bonded in with epoxy or something but I'm not offering advice in any of these directions except to say that I'd rather have a thin-walled tube in compression in holes like that than pinch the tube hard. It might still be a bad idea and you might still die. Or not. Good luck if you decide to go that way.

[Beaver]

I thought about putting in a spacer. I'm not liking the idea of drilling through both sides and bolting my battery to the bike. I think I'll figure out some way I can use hose clamps.

[teledad]

Up to you but I'd install rivnuts rather than drilling all the way through. If you have a local frame builder they can probably do it in 5 minutes. Or you can MacGyver something to install them, do a search for tips.

[jetski]

My shop drilled a bottle mount on a brand new Carbon hardtail. I was not into it but the main mechanic was fired up! Phoned him up... "hey want to put two holes in a brand new carbon hardtail? " Response... "Absolutely!!!"
"Good, I have beer."
Bike got ridden super hard by one of the worlds top endurance freakshows. Cage stayed put.
Still made me super nervous.
Didn't add much to this thread but what the hey. Seemed like an appropriate story

[shirk]

I'd first see if you can find some aluminum split clamps to clamp onto the downtown. Drill and tap the clamps to mount the battery.

[grinch]

I have a couple of these that have been in my tool box a while , waiting for something. You can have them if you think they’ll work. One is 1-3/8 and the other is 1-1/8

[cmcrawfo]

I think the riv nut suggestion is the best one going.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Just throw the battery in the recycling where it belongs.
Stealth droppers really do seem like a cop out for all the designers who couldn't figure out what KS did. And I don't get internal cable routing either. Seems stupid.
Never thought about that not being able to pull the post, but that's a good point. I think when I got the Lev, it was a pricing error by bc.com. It was like $260 and I'm not sure it's ever been that cheap again. I will say this: it returns slowly in the cold, so that may not be good for a fat bike.