Crash-damaged steel frame / bent steerer / dinged tube / dead forks

i dno i left it at a mates last nite. ill go get em in abit and then take a couple snaps.

When I had my crash I bent one fork leg well out. I used some blocks of wood and bent it back into shape so i could ride it until my new forks arrived. It held up fine, but I wouldn't have wanted to ride it for much longer.

I've now bent the frame too so if you want the forks (providing you need a 1" threaded steerer) you can buy them off me! They are Reynolds 853.

ooo i do need a 1'' threaded steerer i think ill get measurements and everything and let u know!

if its threaded its probably 1in.

can you please hurt your self bending the forks? i am low on entertainment today.

lol, do u reckon i could take it to a shop and they could bend it back for me?

yes (if it is a steel fork, which it almost certainly is).

Obviously it depends on how badly it is bent but it's possible. Steel will deal with it. My dad, for example, has tandem whose forks have been straightened three times.

I ended up buying a new fork for my bike, but I was in a similar position and the guy at Kiwi cycles said he would be able to do it. (just an example, i'm sure other bike shops would do the same).

yes it's possible

I used to bullseye swamp rats in my T-16 back home

I used to bullseye swamp rats in my T-16 back home

Then man your ships. And may the Force be with you.

i had a look at my forks again while sober and realised theres no chance there getting fixed lol, time for some new 1s

i had a look at my forks again while sober and realised theres no chance there getting fixed lol, time for some new 1s

Photos or it didn't happen?

;-)

Hammer +HTFU=Result

lol cant b asked to take a photo cause i kno i cant fix it, its got like a dent near the top of the forks, kinda liked the forks too. i mite take a snap 2morro morning if i can b asked

you can get your forks retracked... find a decent frame builder/restorer

can anyone recomend somebody who can re-track rear forks fairly cheaply? (other than Vaz's brother - he didnt do a proper jopb last time which is why im in this predicament)!

haha if u find out let me know! i really think there fucked tho :( an i got no money for ages to replace my forks so looks like im not gonna be riding for a month

I bought a nasty old three speed bike for £5 while studying in Manchester. It was my first bike since my childhood BMX, and I treated it like shite. After pushing my luck riding with only one bolt on the front wheel for possibly week a helpful cabbie parked into me. I attempted to shimmy sideways out of the way, but ended up bending the f**k out of both forks. I figgered that I should get hold of a second bolt and bend my forks back.

Not long after, while riding too fast while slightly stoned, another cabbie suddenly pulled across in front of me to stop, funneling me towards the curb.
I reacted by trying to bunnie hop the curb like I was still on my old BMX,
messed it up,
struck the curb,
snapped both forks,
flew over the bars and did lots of rolling.

So I obviously cant advise home fork bending.

Hi, more questions about this Martrac I bought on ebay a couple of weeks back!

Having got it back from its respray I have built it up and been thinking that the fork doesn't look quite right. It looks to me like it has a very slight backward bend to it - only noticeable at the top section of the fork before the curve. I have compared the forks to a few other track bike forks and they all seem to be a bit straighter in that area.

What do you guys think? I am concerned it may have been in a crash. The forks legs seem parallel from the front and the wheel fits on without any trouble so if it has been crashed it must have been a very even hit.

Should I be concerned? Should I get a new fork?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers

D

4 Attachments

with older track bikes, quite often the fork crown will be offset, as opposed to the fork legs.
looks ok to me

forks fine, i'd be more worried about cheap chainring bending and awkuard angle on bars

Fork looks Ok just a very slack head angle...

Forks ok , but you need to cut your toenails! ;)

ha ha, cant get anything past you guys and your eagle eyes :)

The bars do need tweaking, only just put them on, but they wont be on there for long anyway as they are too wide for me.

The chainring is part of a stronglight one piece crank/ring setup that came with the bike but may well also get replaced very soon for something that allows me to change the chainring - it's not bent at the moment though so should do the job until I get something better

The toenails, well yeah ok they need cutting!

the forks look okay bro, awesome job on the paint wat was the original colour?? and did you drill those brakes?? awesome.

the forks look okay bro, awesome job on the paint wat was the original colour?? and did you drill those brakes?? awesome.

Glad you like it - the original colour was a rather nasty royal blue that looked like a rattle can job and was scratched up pretty bad.

Armourtex did this paint job - cream with a metal flake laquer so it sparkles in the sun :-)

Yes I did drill the fork - got access to a pillar drill so was quite easy.

The bars are now in the correct position and have some brown fabric tape on them so looking a lot nicer, just got to get some new cranks/chainring and it should be finished.

although the forks look ok I can see your point if you look long enough....bent forks usually result in a slight crease/ridge on the underside of the downtube and toptube a couple of inches from the headlugs, if you run your finger along the tubes in this area and you can feel a ridge then this would confirm your suspicions if nothing can be found when you build the bike up try riding hands off in a quiet area and if it feels very twitchy and unstable that would also confirm....hopefully all ok!

A couple of weeks ago I crashed head on into a railing (poorly lit path, unexpected barrier...). I wasn't going that fast but it stopped me dead. I was unhurt luckily. It was dark so i couldn't look over my bike and nothing seemed broken so I rode on to catch my train.

I thought I had been lucky to get away unscathed. However, a few days ago I the light caught my frame in a particular way that showed the paintwork (powdercoat to be exact) to be or have been stressed in exactly the spot I would have expected to have taken the pressure from said incident. It's a bit like stretchmarks! In amongst these tiny colourless lines is what could be construed to be a hairline crack. It really is barely visible and I could be totally wrong, but if the paint has been jarred then something must have moved underneath, right? This photo, taken after the event, shows the spot and as you can see it looks like nothing:

If it has cracked then I am really gutted, I love the frame, I can't afford a new one and I wouldn't be able to find another easily blah blah blah. Obviously I'll be riding it regardless, but if I am right and I ride it will it definitely grow and become more obvious? Tell me straight, if it's a hairline crack is my frame fucked?! Am I right in thinking that having it fixed would be uneconomical?

I was just wondering if anyone has any insight or advice.

Thanks as always.