Hi All,

Apparently this is quite a common malfunction, and I've had a good old look around on the interwebs but can't find a sure-fire way of going about fixing it. The rivnut on the downtube on my posh bike has ripped out (through me not greasing the bottle cage bolts....), leaving a largish hole. It's one of those things I've put off trying to resolve for over a year, but I really do need to get it sorted soon!



The hole is larger than a rivnut, so I need to build up a surface for the nut to grip. Ideas I've considered include

Patching the hole from beneath by somehow squeezing in a patch of cf, applying some resin, adding a couple more hole shaped layers of cf and filling until there is no hole to speak of. Then drilling and inserting a new rivnut

or

Inserting a pre-squashed rivnut and building up the sides of the hole with epoxy filler/resin. This seems more of a bodge and I'd worry about it not being a permanent repair.

or

Sending the frame off to a cf repairer who knows what they're doing?

Thanks!


PS Sorry for the large picture!