Damaged bottle bosses on alloy frame - safe?

I recently bought a frame on eBay. Only after delivery have I discovered this lurking behind the seat tube bottle cage - one of the original riveted bosses has come out and the other one is very loose. Looks like the original owner tapped 2 new holes.

I will contact the seller but before I decide what to do - is it safe to ride an alloy frame in this condition ? How much stress is going through the seat tube just above the front mech? I can t see any hairline cracks or stress risers around the holes but I'm concerned the new holes are too close to the old ones.

If it is safe, perhaps a bike shop could re-rivet into the old holes? If so a cage should cover the new ones. Not ideal but I don't want to write off the frame unnecessarily.

thanks

1 Attachment

Looks a mess. I'd be really fed up. Wouldn't want to cycle it.

Just spoke to seller - he says he had no idea know it was there , he bought it 5 years ago 2nd hand and has ridden it with no issues- so in that time it hasn't got worse. He has offered to give me a full refund and drive down 2 hours to collect so he seems trustworthy. I think Ill take it to Argos Cycles on Tuesday to get their opinion. So annoying, I've been looking for this frame in my size for ages !

For info, for bottle cage nutserts which are usually M5 the hole size required to fit them is 7.1 mm.
The original holes in the frame look too large to fit new nutserts, the 7.1 mm dimension is fairly critical, sometimes you can get away with larger holes especially so with aluminium nutserts, rather less so with stainless.

Some before and after pics, please note these are stainless steel whereas the ones fitted in frames are usually aluminium (less pull up force required)

thanks the hole is now approx 10mm with wear around the edge. Id need a new insert with a larger flange, if that exists.

It almost certainly will not exist, it is not the flange size that is critical but rather the nutsert OD. When the nutserts is pulled up it deforms to be larger than the hole size therefore grips the material with the flange on top and the deformed part of the nutsert underneath.

Maybe this pic will clarify things

Best bet would be to enlarge the existing tapped holes to size for nutserts.

Thanks that helps a lot . I think the tapped holes look too close to the original ones to enlarge them. I'll double check with Argos if they think it's (a) safe and (b) fixable in any way .

It's probably not unsafe but not ideal. Those holes could be filled but it would damage the paint and need a respray.

Is it steel or alu?

just get a refund, life is too short to be taking this to a shop to be assessed and then paying to have the problem resolved

Already got a refund. Its a caad6 so the frames 14 years old and already thin enough! Shame but not worth the risk. Plus was going to repsray so decided not worth the investment.