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I bought a ragley mmmbop (2021) frame from a bike shop recently and was very happy with it when built up, however I've had to do some creak busting which I've narrowed down to the seat tube.
I took my dropper - which is 30.9 with a shim to fit the 31.6 seat tube - out for the first time since building it today thinking I could grease it and fix the noise. When I looked down into the seat tube I noticed a bunch of weld protrusions that I hadn't noticed where the seat stays and top tube attach. They're pretty large (see the picture) so I reckon you'd struggle to fit a 31.6 post past them.
That got me looking elsewhere and I noticed, peering through the dropper cable hole on the downtube, theres a rough looking hole the seatube that looks like it was drilled at a tangent. Its right next to the ISCG tab insert so my best guess is they were drilling a hole for that and went way too far?
The seat tube issue is annoying (My friends at my LBS - not who I bought the frame from - said its fairly common) but I can probably get it reamed as it should have been. However the hole in the seat tube is concerning as the sharp uneven edge looks like the perfect place for stress to concentrate and I cant see why it would be intentional?
Is stuff like this normal or is this a bit dodgy?
Thanks.
Normal on a budget frame, yes.
Returns/complaints cost less than stringent QC.
Annoying as I've had plenty of budget frames with seemingly good QC! Do you think they should warranty it?
The hole doesn’t concern me, the non-painted parts (inside) bikes rarely look nice. The seat tube is annoying, that’s 5 mins for the shop to fix though