would you ride a bike w/ a rewelded neck?

['73 H1 Triple]

Originally Posted by marko138

I'm with you on this. A skilled welder, sure. But a backyard hack, no thanks.

Originally Posted by Kerry_129

Eggzacharry. Just a tiny bit off, and the rake/trail, and worse parallelism of the forks to the frame can be seriously 'off'. And without some precision 'jigging', it WILL be off. On top of that, good weld penetration on aluminum can be a tricky thing, even for an experienced welder, especially without a good hi-frequency DC inverter (welder). I'd guess it was likely done by an amateur, with with a 'hobby' wire-feed welder, and lined-up by eyeball - no way in HELL I would trust it.

Originally Posted by tommymac

Isnt aluminum very tricky to weld in the first place?

Tom

Originally Posted by Kerry_129

Yes - and under/over-penetration (giggety) is hard to control without a good rig (pulsed-DC MIG or hi-freq AC TIG) & knowing what you're doing.

Originally Posted by derf

Yes, any hobbyist probably wont have the skills or equipment to do it on their own and do it correctly. Aluminum is very tricky to weld, and most hobbyist wont be able to weld it without warping it. It also probably wont be structurally sound.

I really wouldnt have a problem with it if it were a cruiser with a steel frame though.

Warping will be the least of his problems. Probably half of amateur welders don't know how to read the puddle correctly to make sure they are in the correct heat range. Did he have the correct fillets for a structurally sound weld? How much oversize did he cut the "new" piece to allow for shrinkage?

I just hope it's his own bike and his life insurance is paid up.