Front fork repair

[jkeeloid]

I ran into a car about two months ago, don't worry, it was a very low velocity impact and I was okay. Problem is, it crunched my front fork on my old Sekine ten speed so the[/size] traps on my pedals were hitting the front wheel, very scary.

I heard that you can't repair this but I thought I'd give it a shot. I found two immovable objects, two chains and a chain come along with about 5 tons of pull. I put one chain from the the immovable object on one end and around the crank on the other. Then I connected the come along from the other immovable object on one end and connected the large hook on the other end to the hub of the front wheel and simply stretched the fork until it was as good as new. I can't see or feel any ill effects whatsoever. The fork was bent but not kinked at all. Anyway, I ride it every day, no problems and it didn't cost me a penny

[Joe_W]

I'd not do that: a fork failure means that you go down really hard with no chance to somehow catch that fall.

[jkeeloid]

I really whacked the bike on the ground a couple of times, nothing happened. Seems to be fine, it's not rocket science. If it were going to fail, it would when I slammed it hard, it didn't. I believe it's because it never really got bent a lot in the first place. It feels quite solid, not at all spongy. I'm riding easy on it to see what it's like. The other problem is that I'm in Saint Lucia and really can't get parts easily, nobody seems to ship anything down here. By the way, can you still get 27" tires, I have a belted Continental on it now and seems to be lasting forever, but sometime it has to wear out.

[trevgbb]

These forks may fail when you least expect it, when you apply the brakes when going downhill at 30 mph. the point of failure will be the welded joint where the steerer tube joins the fork crown and you can't see this because it is hidden by the head bearings.
A crack will slowly propogate in this weld until the remaining metal can no longer carry the load and it will then fail catastrophically, pitching you off the bike head first.
When I say slowly, it can take many days or even weeks to final failure, if you really do insist on riding this bike, keep a sharp eye on the forks, if they show the slightest backward movement, don't use it any more.

Yes, you can still get 27" tyres, wheels, and tubes, in the uk, in any case.

[Bill]

I agree man that is not safe at all!!!