I can’t tell if my fork has been bucked backwards, (or if I just don’t want to see it)
Potential answers include: Yes/no/stop riding until you’ve changed fork/time to retire the whole frame
Some considerations:
• The steering feels a bit strange, when I lean in to a corner it’s as if the wheel wants to turn more than I do
• I’ve never crashed the bike but…
• This used to be my touring bike and I remember running front panniers on it long ago and that I’d get some front break chatter when loaded. (In hindsight running front panniers on such a slim fork wasn’t a genius move)
• the bike (Miyata QuickCross) is originally a ”hybrid” designed for straight bars and is not designed to run drop bars
by vattenkran
16 Comments
If you draw a line through the centre of the headset in your mind’s eye and continue it down through the fork, it looks like the fork has been pushed back a little.
IMHO fork is bent.
Yes it is
A good way to check is to disassemble the whole thing and set the fork flat on its back on a table and see how the steerer looks relative to the plane of the table. Use a flat of table as possible.
Side note I had a Miyata 312 with a bent fork for years. I believe it happened before I owned it and would always act a little squirrelly and you couldn’t ride it no hands to save your life. Eventually swapped a fork from a 914 and completely fixed the handling problems the bike had. I checked it numerous times but the bend or warp was imperceptible to my eyes. I don’t know how or where it was bent but something was not right with it.
There does appear to be some front damage.
Fork is clearly 100 percent bent from a collision. It’s not grossly bent, so I’d ride without worries if I’m not pushing the limits.
Wouldn’t like to stake any money on it but by eye from the first pic it looks as though the fork has been pushed back a bit.
It absolutely is bent back slightly.
It’s absolutely not busted.
If it doesn’t noticeably affect stability, it literally does not matter. Ignore it.
You asked this question 5 years ago, and in that picture, it’s much more obvious the fork has been bent.
Oof. That’s a great frame, too. I think it’s worth keeping it and replacing the fork.
Steel fork can be straighten back, for that small bent, Park Tool FFS-2 can help.
It’s bent. It’s bent very little though, and being steel, shouldnt be an issue unless it feels wonky to ride.
YOOOO I GOT THE SAME BIKEEEEE
Not enough to worry about it
Find the catalog from that model and look up the wheelbase for that frame size.
I’ve had a lot of miles under my backside on steel framed bikes. Some frame makers had forks that appeared bent, like the photo, but when you measured up, the key things like trail & caster were spot on. Just an optical illusion. Well worth the bother of trying to measure if you are concerned.
If you have bent those forks it’s not fatal. The axle of the front wheel looks to be ahead of a line drawn down the centre of the steerer tube/ headset. In effect you may have changed the steering geometry a tiny wee bit, hence the twitchy feel of steering more than your perceived input. Don’t forget that you may be subconsciously comparing handling with panniers!! Being a steel bike means you could just get used to it and carry on without worrying about mechanical failure OR find a friendly frame builder to check and maybe straighten or re-blade the forks.
Just check both forks have moved by a similar amount. Oh, and check if any paint has been cracked by the stress of bending. No cracked paint, unlikely to be bent.
This is a less than $100 fix from a framebuilder if you’re handy and know how to remove the fork along with all the parts, including headset stuff. If you make the framebuilder remove and install the parts your costs will balloon because of how much extra time it will take.
Yes, it’s bent. It can be bent back with proper tooling.