a right/wrong way to drill drainage hole in Yo?

afterbang

Member
Hey guys.

Stepped foot in a bike shop for the first time in a while. The mechanics there happened to be familiar with Fats and they even had a used Yo for sale. The topic of seat tube corrosion came up when I mentioned what that green seal on the clamp was for. It was highly recommended to me that I add a drainage hole to my frame and I was quoted a 15 dollar charge to drill a hole through the BB, straight through the bottom of the seat tube.

This seems like a good idea to preserve my bike, as my 89 Wicked with drainage holes is bone dry with absolutely no corrosion, but I wanted some opinions from those who've performed this job and the long term Fat owners here.

It seems like there is no other way to do it, but is this the proper way to put a drainage hole in?
Also, would this affect the value of my frame at all? I want to eventually get a non-suspension corrected Yo in size medium, so I may sell mine in the future if I have to in order to afford a different one.

When I first got my frame from fat-tony, I poured Simple Green into the seat tube, cleaned the heck out of it, got it bone dry and finally used frame saver. Looked great inside and solid, but the frame had never been ridden since it was repainted quite a few years ago. I just want to ride my bike all through the wet Oregon winters and don't want to deal with draining and hang drying my bike all the time and I'm known to leave bikes dirty.

Maybe I'm thinking way too hard about all of this, but I just want to take care of the things I own...
 
I've always made sure that there was a ring of grease (I use the Phil Wood) around the collar where the seat tube and clamp intersect. Never had any moisture get into the seat tube, always been bone dry.

Gets a bit dirty at times, but easy to clean and reapply.
 

chefmiguel

New member
It is the proper way, and the price sounds more than fair. If you want to do it yourself its not too hard.
 

fat-tony

Moderator
Staff member
I would never drill a drain hole. Just keep up good maintenance. Frame saver is your friend.
 

WD Pro

New member
I would agree with the above :)

Or you could do what the plank did that modified my frame ...

• Replaced the seat tube for corrosion.
• Drilled the bb shell before fitting the new seat tube.

So, water that went down it then, would fill the bb shell first and then the seat tube, taking out both as it had nowhere to go ...

I guess if it had a cartridge style bb in it, the first you would know is when the sea tube rotted through (again) and then when it was stripped, if you could get the bb out and it wasn't seized in solid, the bb shell would probably be screwed to ... !

As the seat tube is currently brazed, I am having it replaced with a tig'd item - I will be asking the builder to weld up the 'drain hole' and I will be filling the tube with some form of frame saver - probably supertrol as I have used it before and have been impressed :)

WD :)
 

afterbang

Member
thanks for taking the time to write, guys.

The frame is in great shape, so no need to take drastic measures. I'm just gonna lay down a fat layer of Phil grease for now and see if that works. Also, I have a few cans of Boeshield, and since that leaves a really waxy layer, I'm gonna squirt some of that stuff in there. Maybe all of the different chemicals will join forces to create an impenetrable barrier against corrosion :)

There seems like there's a lot of people against drilling and I don't want that to be a turn off to anyone if I ever sell.
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
I would not drill a hole unless you have no other alternative. You will not have paint on the edges of the hole and corrosion WILL start there. See my response to another post. Keep the inside coated. You can spray rust inhibitor down into the seat tube on a semi-regular basis and keep the seat post and top of the inside of the seat tube well-greased. Anything worth keeping is worth keeping up if you know what I mean.
Good Luck
Scott
 
Top