Having noticed how rusty the bolts holding the mudguards on my hybrid were, I decided to replace them with some nice new stainless ones so that I don't encounter problems when trying to remove them. Sounds fine in principle however I went to undo them and two of them felt like butter, the thread was starting to twist so I put a bit of heat on the bolt, being careful not to damage paint work then promptly broke both bolts off into the frame and the fork-bottoms.
Needless to say, I'm not a happy bunny. Now I've got to drill and tap the threads which is going to be a complete ball-ache, how do you get a bike flat and stable to do this?!
The real pain is the fact that the LBS put these guards on when I bought the bike, with dodgy mild steel bolts that they've obviously scavenged from somewhere. They're no longer trading or I'd have gone in and complained. Incidentally, I went into the remaining LBS and he said that they throw away the standard fixing bolts that come with mudguards and always use stainless bolts. It's not so bad as it's good weather at the moment but I'm not looking forward to the wet arse from a rainy ride to work.
Needless to say, I'm not a happy bunny. Now I've got to drill and tap the threads which is going to be a complete ball-ache, how do you get a bike flat and stable to do this?!
The real pain is the fact that the LBS put these guards on when I bought the bike, with dodgy mild steel bolts that they've obviously scavenged from somewhere. They're no longer trading or I'd have gone in and complained. Incidentally, I went into the remaining LBS and he said that they throw away the standard fixing bolts that come with mudguards and always use stainless bolts. It's not so bad as it's good weather at the moment but I'm not looking forward to the wet arse from a rainy ride to work.
