New steel frame showed up bent af

Righto.

It seems really obvious to me though that if DHL trashed the frame...

Have DHL been responsible for the whole journey or just the UK leg of it?

Well, for anyone who is interested, I met with brothers Vahrona this morning, awesome workshop and lovely, knowledgeable blokes.

I'm looking at complete replacement of drive side stays as Winston said he may also replace the non-driveside chainstay, as it's his belief that surly's crimping of the chain stays to allow for tyre/chainset clearance is what made the bend possible... So 270 for the repair...

(He did bend it back out in order to see if both sides were bent or just one, so I now could technically get a wheel in there and ride it, but he didn't think it would last long that way)

Then for Mario upstairs to respray is another 150...

Then, and this is the real clincher is think, these guys are so good (aka busy) that I'm looking at a couple of months... And 420 quid... On a 650 frame

All of this and then the import duty issue still outstanding, I'm probably going to bin the frame.

Which leads me to my next debate. Find another Straggler, or settle for a Kepler. But I'll start a new thread for that!

I'm probably going to bin the frame.

Don't you dare!

Seriously though, if you decide not to repair it I'd love to take it off you and do something with it.

I'd be willing to pay you, unfortunately I'm not in London or I'd offer to come collect it, but I'd pay you for shipping and pay you something for the frame too.

It seems a real shame to just bin it. If it was rattle canned instead of painted by Mario you'd be looking at £300 for the frame. I was going to recommend going that route then selling it for £400 on ebay but honestly with shipping and everything the profit may not make it worthwhile. Maybe you could get Winston to write down the quote and shove it for sale on here or ebay for whatever profit makes it feel worthwhile for you even if it just pays for a couple of nice take away meals.

I'd also happily take it to recycle/give it a future life

Just to clarify, I would love obviously not just literally bin it, but it's possible (and been suggested by some on here) that I won't have my import duty waived unless I have the frame either shipped back or destroyed... Although I don't know how they would ever verify if it was destroyed or not.

That's means I'd be in for 129 quid to even own the damaged frame, before I do anything with it

I'd check with HMRC; send them a picture of the bent frame and the crack in the paint, and point out it's already destroyed? They may consider that proof enough.

I've got a claim underway with DHLs duty department. Will see how that plays out

Still waiting for DHL to update me, in the meantime I've bought a Kepler instead. I don't feel as good as if I'd got what I actually wanted, but fact is there aren't any Stragglers available right now.

Did they ever get back to you?

Would be a bit shit if you ended up out of pocket over this.

Still out standing. Brother frame arrives today though so I need to come up with a plan and shift it! Will probably just sell it as a pair of straggler forks with a free bent frame!