An alternative method to fork straightening

[Tempe-Terror]

The way I usually straighten up a fork involves a vice but my vice and most of my other stuff is in storage until we move. So I thought up a new way using the junk I had laying around.

Here is the bent fork:

hard to tell in the pic, but it's got a good bend in it.

I had this solid steel wheel from an exercise bike, I hung on to it because it is very heavy and figured I could use it as a base for a drill press stand. The exercise bikes that have these are fairly common and can usually be had at the Goodwill for 5 to 10 dollars. As you can see in the pic below, it weighs a good 35 pounds.

I turned the fork around the other way and mounted the solid wheel on.(I couldn't get the rack off the fork due to the bend in the tube)

Next I took the bike outside and looked for a big brick wall to ram the bike(metal wheel first)into. I ended up finding a big metal roll away dumpster at a construction site next door. I gave it a few good rams and brought the bike back to the patio.

The fork is back to normal and it was kind of fun to ram the bike into the dumpster.

Next I took the bike out on a beer run just to test every thing out.

SUCCESS!

 

[Anonymous]

I have a "bent" Schwinn (BF Goodrich) blade fork horror story...

They looked to me to be bent too far back...Sooo

I jack up the left front of the '77 Cadillac and procede to let the tire down on the forks straddled in wood blocks at both ends...

Gotta be at least 1500# resting in those forks.Didnt straighten them,now they are TWEEKED!

I got real mad and bought a repop Schwinn Springer for it instead and I like it better.

 

[user 135]

Nice way to keep your lock safe.

 

[new_dharma]

steer-tube [almost] horror story.
a friend has an old monark middleweight. when he brought it in for a tune-up (right after buying it) I noticed the front fender was REALLY close to the frame...when I started takin' it apart to regrease everything I noticed the steer tube was bent backwards. I pointed this out to my friend and he asked, "Can we fix it?"
"We can try," I told him.
after a bit (and some swears & one set of bloody knuckles), we got the steer tube [pretty] straight. got the bike back together, it turned ok (only a slight bind on almost-90 degree-turns) and my friend was on his way.
1 month passes and my friend calls. his steering has some shakiness. he brings it over & I ask what he did. he tells me he tried to tighten the bearings, but then the steering got too tight.
I took the headset apart, checked the head-races to make sure they didn't move in the frame...they were good.
I checked the adjustable race to make sure it was loose when threaded on the fork...nope! still good
I checked the crown race...it had slight movement...popped it off (no, it wasn't that easy) and noticed a crack where the steerer meets the crown...back-to-front, the direction we "fixed" the bent steerer.
Please be careful when trying to fix a bent steerer...
I'll try to correct a bent fork blade, but NEVER a steerer...too much risk involved.

 

[Markm]

also, protect the threads when bending. On my Monarch rat rocket build off bike I stuck the tube in a metal fence post and bent the forks back. Seemed okay til I looked at the end...the notch in the threads split and misshaped the end of the tube...trashed!

 

[tikiharl]

When I was in high school shop class many years ago, we would have to watch the shop saftey films. One animated character was Saftey Sam and the other one was Primitive Pete. Guess which one you guys fall under,lol. Oh BTW it sounds like something I'd do too.