Swingarm Pivot Hole Repair

[Slug]

I'll drop a some pics here but wanted to know how you folks would go about repairing this as welding doesn't seem to be holding well at all and now the one side is completely cracked off.


I'm kind of thinking of just finding some scrap steel that is thicker and I know won't break like the Chinesium and weld it to the existing bracket.



This started happening back in July-- at first I managed to JB Weld it which held for about a month. Then I stick welded it a few times and each time the weld still broke.

In the last 2 pics you can see the front of the hole completely broke off.
I ended up welding a washer to the outside as well as welding the spacer piece on the inside the best I possibly could.


I also went to a bike shop and asked how much they would charge to repair this back in August and he told me $250 to make a new bracket and cut the existing out to weld it up. But for that price I may as well buy a CRF frame off eBay.


For those curious this is a 2020 TBR7 with a little over 10k - 15k miles - honestly lost track when the odometer broke on the original dash.

[Bruces]

It’s kind of funny you think welding some “scrap steel “ is going to be different than the original “Chineesium “ ,these bikes are made from shitty scrap metal so you would be using factory hardware .
Anyway ,I do not know how thick the original flat bar is ,but I would find a piece as thick or thicker and weld it to it ,but since you are having problems ,try going to a welding shop to get it repaired .Check the other side at the same time and repair it as well .A welding shop can handle this job correctly in a few minutes ,but bring them the bike with the pieces that need to come apart removed as that costs them time which costs you money .I will say that the fact you tried JB weld on it tells me enough to say you shouldn’t be tackling a job like this yourself ,you can end up hurting yourself or someone else .

[Slug]

Originally Posted by Bruces

I do not know how thick the original flat bar is ,but I would find a piece as thick or thicker and weld it to it ,but since you are having problems ,try going to a welding shop to get it repaired

The metal is surprisingly thin on the bracket for what is supposed to support the bikes drivetrain. But I've not heard of anyone else having this problem so maybe I just drew the short straw here.



That's what I did when I got the quote of $250 to repair this small area which would literally be $20 material and no more than a 1hr job which would include taking the rear wheel and swingarm off.



You can buy a full CRF frame for slightly more than that off eBay.

Originally Posted by Bruces

Check the other side at the same time and repair it as well

The right side has no issues at all even though it's also held on by two welds like you can see on the other side.

Originally Posted by Bruces

I will say that the fact you tried JB weld on it tells me enough to say you shouldn’t be tackling a job like this yourself ,you can end up hurting yourself or someone else .

Wasn't riding it at all, had the bike parked the entire time. I genuinely only did it because I didn't want to have the bike sitting around in pieces since I'd very likely lose that spacer. So all I did was reattached it to the bike while I called around different shops.



I didn't ride at all until I had welded it back up which is where I said it broke off a few times. So that was breaking same day after riding it up and down the road around the house.

But I 100% agree that you should not JB Weld any stress bearing part of your frame like this and ride it.