Bad Welds

[BMG1968]

These are pictures of the welds on my daughters bike as it came from the store. My wife thinks I'm crazy cause I want to grind them out and re-weld the whole thing.

[terr1bleone]

a machine prob did those, i wouldnt be too concerned. by the looks of the bike your daughter is a little girl whom i dont see breaking the welds and causing serious injury.

[elvergon]

Yes!

that´s us welders....

I´ve even seen UGLY ducatti welds...

"in series production" bah...

[mmwb]

Is she planning on any serious jumps? lol

[zapster]

Yes they suck..
And yes your crazy..Leave them alone..

No touch!!

You'll have the biggest mess on your hands if you go playing with it..
Trust me..Back away from the bike...


Then you will need to repaint it and everything after anyway...

...zap!

[MicroZone]

Originally Posted by mmwb

Is she planning on any serious jumps? lol

My GT and CW racing BMX frames were TIG welded. I remember to this day, they were some nice welds. This was before GT sold out production to the Chinese factory.

[rusty ripple]

you will never match that powder coat if you do, but on the other hand every little girl dreams of a sparkly pink/red primer two tone bicycle with streamers and a bell.

[BMG1968]

I was only kidding about re-welding it. It would be more time and effort than the bike is worth.
I dont think they are machine welds, unless someone needs serious retraining in setting it up. Some of them are so bad that they are just cold beads sitting on top of the metal. A lack of quality control I think.

[Patriot Performance]

My girlfriend and I just bought a couple bikes from Wal-Mart recently. I would not let her get one bike because the welds were horrible on it. We ended up with a couple Mongoose bikes with some decent TIG welds on them. I'm the same way anything else she buys. Gotta check the welds!

[turboblown]

Most people I know would let their wife/girlfriend on something with bad welds!

[Skwerly]

Stay AWAY from el cheapo stuff, you get what ya pay for . GT, Haro, Diamond Back all come with a price, but are SAFER than the average Target/WalMart special, even though they are priced nicely!

I might even consider grinding some of the worst ones and making a fat pass over it, just to make yourself feel better. Only problem is paint matching and an unhappy daughter lol.

[aczeller]

there's nothing wrong with a beautiful, matte-black primer coat over the whole thing... a girls gotta learn sometime that life ain't all pretty and pink. HAHAHAHA!!! besides... if you really wanted to re-paint the welds, how much more paint would it take to re-paint the whole thing? MAYBE an extra rattle can? if it were me, i'd leave em... worst case scenario, and i know this sounds bad, but your baby girl gets a scraped knee and then you sue... sue for a lot... say that it caused your daughter permanent, detrimental emotional and psychological damage. that's good for at least 50 million right? hehehehe... just kidding... i know the welds look like crap, but i all honesty, for a bike that color, i doubt it'll be seeing any one over 50-75 lbs anyway... this leads me to believe that they won;t be getting any "sweet air time" and thus, no major stresses.

later,
Andy

[Rojodiablo]

Originally Posted by MicroZone

My GT and CW racing BMX frames were TIG welded. I remember to this day, they were some nice welds. This was before GT sold out production to the Chinese factory.

The mere fact that I even know what a CW, Cooks bros., or DG bike means I am old. Thanks for bringing that to light for me John!!!! And, as for the welds on the bike.....don't bother with them. Many times, re-welding on thin wall tube gives a better weld, but you can make a much larger HAZ area, and much more potential for tube failures instead of weld failures.

[MicroZone]

Welcome! I was one of very few who had the CW lightening frame.
I sold it back to my brother who still owns it to this day. A very cool and unique
frame.

[Brad.cee]

a 5 year old boy welded that back in china lol

[aczeller]

i would have guessed a 3-year-old thaiwanisian child in micronesia. yes... that's right... a thaiwanisian child in micronesia... my mind works in strange ways. hehehehehe

later,
Andy

[Brett]

Originally Posted by BMG1968

These are pictures of the welds on my daughters bike as it came from the store. My wife thinks I'm crazy cause I want to grind them out and re-weld the whole thing.

I can see it now .
The frame with perfect X ray quality welds.
Beautiful spray job.
All running gear re installed.
Bike re assembled.

Just in time....................
















.........for the lass's Graduation

[txfireguy2003]

That's interesting guys. Those ARE obviously horrible welds, but the other day I was watching "How it's Made" on TLC and they were in a bike factory. They showed the frame being welded together with gas! They put the frame in a jig, with the tubing notched to make a pretty tight fit, dropped a few pieces of metal down inside the tubes and turned on some gas jets (about 6 of them). The tubing heated up to a bright yellow, you could visibly see the two upright tubes melt into the one horrizontal tube and the metal inside caused a bead to form at the joint! I was ammazed, how well it seemed to work and how quickly, seems like all bike factories would do it that way, but then again, that show tends to show top of the line products being made, so maybe that's only how they do it on high end stuff nowdays.

[65535]

That seams like how it would be done in a factory making steel framed cruiser bikes, most high end bikes these days are aluminum titanium, and/or carbon fiber.