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1941-ish Rollfast Lightweight

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bikiba

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
I've been actively working on the rollfast light weight I bought a few months back for the last week.
Original thread here: http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showth...k-style-racer-200-shipped&p=367284#post367284


I just noticed, the fork is bent :( ... my luck and rollfast forks is no bueno!


you can see in the original pic that the fork is fine.
ajupygu4-1.jpg



the day i got it
85bb13c87ced4fc6957204f2830cdd58_zps8161-1.jpg



Closeup where you see the bearings! :(
IMG2014091600103_zps94f393c9-1.jpg



Ugh... like looking at a broken leg
IMG2014091600102_zpse7d9cbbc-1.jpg



So now i am at work, I am wondering, if it was really bent? or maybe it is just loose and needs to be tightened? My gut feel from what i remember is that it needs to be straightened. if so, we have an old time bike shop 100+ years that i will take it to along with big red rollfast.


You can see the nice shiny stem below compared to the other pics. I worked on it for a good 30mins last night and is even better looking.
stemside_zps01929c60-1.jpg



one issue is that the stem has a cracky looking chip on the top.It is completely flat and shallow. I tried to "break" the stem using the handle bars and twisting it and it didnt move so i think it will be fine if i use it for now for light stearing. [ no mountain biking for this rollfast : ] But if anyone has a stem that they dont need anymore i wuold be interested or i will just check out the wares in trexlertown.
stemtop_zpsd22cc358-1.jpg



IMG2014091600107_zps4622c872-1.jpg



On a positive note I was able to find
1. tires/tubes that fit
2. the fenders, chainguard, stem and handlebars have been cleaning up nicely.
3. no other major defects


Almost done with the initial rust removal, but will need to get serious on the tougher parts. Given its current state i think I need about 15-20 more man hours on it.
 
Guessing the bike was shipped to you with the fork turned around and left in the frame.
I've had decent luck asking shippers to write PLEASE DO NOT STAND ON END in big letters on the boxes.
 
Guessing the bike was shipped to you with the fork turned around and left in the frame.
I've had decent luck asking shippers to write PLEASE DO NOT STAND ON END in big letters on the boxes.

i honestly don't remember how i pulled it out of the box. =/
 
you can see in the original pic that the fork is fine.
View attachment 169326

i finally figured out what happened and it is VERY bad news.

Check out the fork in this pic. If you look SUPER close you can see that if you were facing the front wheel the right hand side of the fork is lower from the headset than the left hand side. it is barely noticeable at this angle. So it wasnt a front/back thing, it is a left to right bend.

So i was attempting to get the fork off and guess what happened? The whole fork cracked off! it is rusted through at that point it exits the headset and the right side had already had a crack and tht is why the thing was off kilter.

My heart sank to my feet... :(

i took some pix, but my phone died so i will put them up tomorrow.

I doubt anyone has this type of fork laying around forsale?

Do you guys think i could have it welded?
 
3aja4ade-1.jpg


Ugh....

Giving it a 3rd 4th and 5th looks, it looks as if it must have been bent or cracked in the spot and became weak and done.

I have never seen a fork "rip". The point of the break is pretty straight. Anyone good at welding??


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
Hard to tell what is going on from your picture, but fork steerer tubes can be welded to be as good as new. You want to work with a competent welder and it should be sleeved for alignment and strength. I do some of my own welding, but work with a local shop when safety is crucial. I simply asked some of my hot rod buddies for a recommendation the first time I needed to find a shop (to weld a motorcycle frame) and have been using them ever since.
 
thanks @VR6GTiGuy

my sister in laws dad is a metalsmith, mostly precious, but has a number of friends in that business. Im going to ask him what he thinks, but yeah i think going to a motorcycle guy would be best.
 
Any bicycle frame builder will be able to splice in a new threaded steerer- there are a bunch in NYC. Keep that slack angled machine on the road!
 
It is actually a plus this happened now and not later. You don't want to find out the fork is compromised while riding. A broken fork usually means a serious crash. The other plus is that as a steel fork it can be fixed. Start with a local framebuilder as Andrew mentioned.

You should check the top-head and down-head tube joints for bending or damage now as well.
 
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