Mop handle in seat tube

[ipswichcycler]

I thought it was time for some winter maintenance on my nomad mk2 especially as I have been riding off road to avoid road salt in U.K. I took the saddle post and shim out and I looked down the seat tube. There was either oil or water at the base. Rather than turn it upside down to run out I proceeded to make a dabbing stick out of a thin mop handle. To cut an irritating story short I now have a mop handle cap stuck in the seat tube. The plastic cap on the end came off and is catching on the water bottle bits!! Arggh

[energyman]

Welcome to the "I thought it was a good idea but........   club".
 

[Danneaux]

All empathy and sympathy, ips'.

I think you may have the best luck now if you can remove your crankset and bottom bracket so you can try to push the broomstick out from below.

Don't forget to remove the bolts from the bottle bosses; sometimes they can extend further into the seat tube than the bosses alone. You might gain a bit of clearance the way.

If all else fails, you may be able to drill the end of the broomstick, sink a screweye into it, and use mole grips to pull it out.

All good wishes,

Dan.

[ipswichcycler]

All sorted now. It wasn't the handle itself.  The handle was capped with a little plastic end piece and when withdrew the handle the end cap stayed inside.

I taped two kebab skewers together, reinserted the mop handle and used the skewers to allow it to pull past the water cage bosses.

I've been reading past posts about greasing the seat post. I think it had copper slip on from new (its a 2014 bike) but this didn't seem to stop water getting in. I say I think as it had a goldish/metallic grease in the post and shim. It's a bit hard for me to accurately describe the colour as I'm red green colour blind. Would a thicker grease like Phil wood be more water repeallant?

[Danneaux]

In my experience...yes.

Good job on the extraction! 

All the best,

Dan.

[bobs]

Lucky escape 

[mickeg]

Nomad MK II, you should see the eccentric when you look in it.  And, I would expect any water that gets in the seat tube to be able to drain out the bottom past the eccentric as long as you do not have so much grease in there that a seal of grease exists.

For this reason I do not bother to grease my seatpost in my Nomad.  Another reason for grease is that dissimilar metal corrosion can lock a seatpost to the frame, but my Nomad seatpost is painted so no need to worry about corrosion.

That said, I do grease my Sherpa seatpost, had it out yesterday and it still has grease on it.  On the Sherpa I am not useing the painted Thorn seatpost, using one that I do have to worry about corrosion.