Pannier Weld, Braze or silver solder

I have a pannier frame welded 20 years ago by a friend who unfortunately can no longer weld due to ill health. I have used this setup to travel all over Scandinavia and northern Europe on my 1950 Sunbeam S8 motor cycle I even made it to Finland and back.

However I have just noticed one of the sides has fractured in front of a through pin it is not really load bearing but could be under tension I wanted some advice on how to best repair it.

First thought is to cut away the welded pin and turn up a piece to join the two pieces of tube redrill for the pin but this will still need welding so I wanted to know if it could be welded as is ?

Whichever way you decide to tackle it, i would definitely braze rather than weld, what you've got there is a classic stress fracture, if you weld it, chances are it will eventually fail again.

Not sure how you could prepare the faces of the fracture so they were suitable for brazing. I would be quite happy if that was welded up as long as a suitable plate or strap was also welded on. Basically locally triangulate the structure to transfer reduce the force the joint will see.

Ian P

If possible I would extend the gusset past the centre line of the pin.

Try and get it clean for a TIG weld then grind flush. Follow this with TIG welding a section of larger tube to sit over the original. That should see your riding days out.

For a' long-time' solution I think it needs a redesign of that area.

A piece of solid round bar where the pin is welded into the tube , turned down to a diameter which would fit

tightly into the existing tube, for at least 2" at each end perhaps ?

This would at least remove the weak point of that drilled tube to somewhere else.

I'd just weld it up and add a piece of 1" x 1/8" flat bar to extend the gusset down past the broken area and join up with the other gusset, then weld that in position. If the last one lasted 20 years, that should see you out.

Well done touring on a 1950 Sunbeam - or a 1950 anything else really. Great to see the old bikes still being used in anger.