Yeah, I think this is certainly bike shop territory. The only thing I can think of is I somehow cross threaded it the last time I put it in. I can’t see how though. Bottle cage bolts just freely spin in normally. That’s how I normally know they’re not cross threaded
I’m going to rethink my nutrition/storage strategy, and go for two bottles BTS (one with spares/tools) and use the useable seat tube mount for the bottle of Maurten I was originally planning on the downtube.
I’ve decided I don’t want to risk trying to remove that bolt now, even via the LBS, and potentially create even more problems for myself with no time to fix.
If you’re willing to have a go after your IM I’d be tempted to soak it like others have said, then like Symes, get a junior hacksaw or such and cut a line through the centre and unscrew with a screwdriver
If its truly seized, and I doubt it is after a couple of months, them PlusGas is what you need. WD40 is for water displacement. It’s not great at unseizing stuff, well it’s OK but PG is superior.
If the insert is aluminium and the bolt is steel then you might have galvanic corrosion which is a right bugger. Audi suspension systems are famous for this with their pinch bolt, aluminium ball joints pinched by a steel bolt. It would basically weld its self together. Took me ages to get it out.
That’s why I always use anti-seize. I’ve had Ti frames before and galvic is a big issue on those. Using grease or anti seize on bolts also makes your torque wrench semi useful. If you’re using a torque wrench on dry bolts, you’d be better off throwing it in the bin.
As suggested use a hacksaw blade to put a slot in the bit that is exposed to allow a good sized screwdriver to get in there.
This kind of seizure is usually down to dissimilar metals effectively making a battery. Don’t use the easy outs they are crap and hardley ever work
Get it as hot as you can without damaging anything, multiple cycles and soaking with WD40 or similar.
If all that fails you would need to file flat so you can drill it out exactly at the centre so the wall of the screw is so thin the thread will peal out and then clean up with a tap if necessary.
They never work. On a bolt that sheared its self on the full diameter because it was seized they try to splay the bolt putting even more pressure on the threads and attempting to remove with a smaller diameter that sheared on the first place.
So have you drilled a hole in the bolt for the removal kit? Can you use that as a pilot for a bigger hole just to drill it out? (It will collapse when the hole is big enough)
Brake cables. Ordered new cables and outlets. They have nipples on both ends. So I cut off the end I don’t need? It seems like a stupid question as the cable won’t thread through the outer casing unless I do, but my experience of cutting these is that the multi strand wire can unwrap and make it difficult to thread through the outer casing.
Are you sure you haven’t ordered a cable with different nipple sizes at each end? Campag and Shimano are different sizes and IIRC, some of the new Shimano stuff is different to the older ones?
As for the frayed ends, a dab of super glue can help just to get it through unscathed.
I assume it’s come with some replacement nipples? It’s normal to cut it to size but ideally you want a proper pair of cutters for it as the spiral can get distorted if your cutters aren’t very good.
and I think I have stripped the threads in the frame too