Colnago C40 water bottle mounts loose!

[Robin77]

Hey y’all!
So I am having buyers remorse. Other probs solved, now I have two water bottle mounts that spin. Can one remove the old mounts and fit something else? I tried to using a 5mm tap to clean up the internal threads but tap seems to bottom out after only a few mm. Help.
-Robin

 

[4th in the devil]

I've had a similar problem in a carbon frame before. My local bike shop where able to replace them (not sure how exactly but I think they were drilled out and replaced using a kind of pop-rivet). They changed me a tenner.

 

[Repacker]

Not sure if this addresses your specific problem, but I saw it yesterday on the MTB section of the forum

 

[jim haseltine]

You might be able to tighten them as above - you just need a nut & bolt & washer of the correct size and two spanners. If that doesn't work carefully drilling them out and replacing them with rivnuts isn't difficult. You can usually pick up a rivnut setting tool complete with nuts in various sizes in DiY stores for a not a lot of cash.

 

[Robin77]

Thanks all. Yes, I saw rivnut installers at a DIY auto store, but these do not look like “typical” rivnuts. A 5mm fastener bottoms out after only a few turns, maybe 4-5mm deep. I can see a narrower sleeve inside the “rivnut” that stops a fastener from going all the way down/through.
Anyway, masking tape around the two that were loose and worked JB Weld epoxy under them and that seems to work. I just will not tighten too much when I attach bottle cages! Maybe some blue loctite thread locker to keep from vibrating loose? Or lock washers may be better…..
-Robin

 

[Robin77]

Oh my, I said ”y’all”
I moved from Boston Massachusetts to Charleston South Carolina eight years ago and the moronic southern culture is rubbing off on me! Dreadful!

 

[Jonny69]

Not sure if this addresses your specific problem, but I saw it yesterday on the MTB section of the forum

I’ve used that method a couple of times and can confirm it works on a metal frame. I’d only do it gently on a carbon frame though, literally just enough to nip them up but no further.

 

[jim haseltine]

Forgot - if fitting metal rivnuts in a carbon frame apply a coat of epoxy to them and fit them before it cures to reduce electrolytic corrosion

 

[Robin77]

The ”inserts” I will call them, are pretty “knackered” as you say. The flange is pretty soft “metal” and can be filed easily. My last resort will be to using masking tape around the head/flange and file down until I can push them into the tube and shake out of the BB. Then use “normal” rivnuts with some epoxy under the head as Jim reminded.

For now, its in a box in the back of the closet because it has become a huge headache and it is no fun anymore! I will not talk about the cracked Star fork steertube.
-Robin