Many modern frames made from alternate materials are designed with a removeable right rear frame end ( some people call these "dropouts"). In a traditional steel frame, the end is thin and soft between the axle and the gear changer. When the bike is dropped on the right side, this end bends so that the gear changer is not damaged. Aligning the end is trivially simple. Just slip an allen key in the top pivot and pull up until the derailleur's cage is parallel to the chainrings(vertical alignment) and in line with the bike's centerline ( horizontal alignment). There is a neat little tool Campagnolo type R, that makes this job quicker. That tool may be fabricated without much trouble but a simple allen key and sighting the alignment is usually sufficient.

In extreme cases, a steel frame end may be filled and rethreaded when the derailleur mounting threads are damaged. Steel ends may also be cut when damaged and the lower half replaced with a Campagnolo #80.1 gear tab (or a copy) as shown in this repair photo. Early French frame ends, such as those made by Huret and Simplex, are made for derailleurs which are no longer availalble. We can modify those to accept current standard gear changers and conform to modern index gear system protocol

Alternate materials present some difficulty in this regard. Carbon and aluminum frames are presently made with a removeable gear tab. This is a much better way to make a bicycle frame than using a one-piece aluminum copy of a steel end because aluminum is difficult to weld in that area. Here's a good example of why. Now, I must digress for an editorial comment

We often note that many components and frames change every year for no good reason. Certainly the marketing department loves change because they can tout this year's product as being far superior to the useless crap they sold us a few months ago. Designers have a vested interest in redesigning everything all the time, else there would be less work for designers. We poor hapless cyclists must swim on a sea of planned obsolescence such that our year-old components are abandoned by the vendor as "not worth fixing" and service parts are more difficult to secure every year. Nothing exhibits this so much as frame ends. Most of the aluminum and carbon bicycles sold in America are not made by the vendor whose name is on the frame. It is often quite difficult to even determine who made the piece at all! Famous brands such as Schwinn have had several owners in the last few years and have sold frames made by a dozen or more framebuilders in almost as many countries. A simple and common repair, replacing a frame end, involves a scavenger hunt for the right part and that search gets more difficult every year. There is no earthly reason for so many frame ends. The entire industry could easily build around two designs instead of the nearly one hundred currently on the road. Moreover, these ends are so small, so complex in shape and so arranged as to make interchageabllity nearly impossible. The cost to the manufacturer would be no different with a standardized end system. The cost to the rider now is horrendous, not so much in money as in aggravation. The present situation is unacceptably chaotic and a disservice to the cyclist- who has no idea about this when he buys a bike and can be left with an irreparable frame after a minor crash. There. I've said it. Now back to our "frame ends" page.

Here are some of the ends we stock and the applications we know about. Since the manufacturers of these ends and the frames they came in are sold through many vendors, these ends have other aplications we don't yet know about.

Click to enlarge images

Frame Ends
• #32.00.240 $19.95
• #32.97.100 $19.95
• #32.00.290 $19.95
• #32.96.100 $19.95
• #32.90.250 $19.95
• #32.00.240 $19.95
• #32.00.248 $19.95
• #32.00.270 $19.95
• #32.00.262 $19.95
• #32.00.350 $19.95
• #32.00.310 $19.95
• #32.00.302 $19.95 fits Bianchi Boardwalk
• #32.00.200. $19.95
• #32.00.210 $44.95
  American Machined
• #32.00.230 $19.95
• #32.00.260 $19.95
• #32.90.252 $19.95
• #32.00.250 $19.95
• #950.851 $24.95
• #950.852 $24.95
• #950.853 $24.95
• #950.854 $24.95
• #950.855 $24.95
• #950.856 $24.95
• #950.857 $24.95
• #950.858 $24.95
• #RLEND2K $19.95
• #RLEND01 $19.95
• #KENDCSX $29.95
• #KENDTA $24.95