# Curved Fork or bent



## Clark58mx (Dec 1, 2016)

Hello, is this a factory fork or was it custom bent. If it is not factory, whoever did it, did a good job. It was removed from prewar CWC roadmaster. Any thoughts?


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## SirMike1983 (Dec 1, 2016)

It looks to have been damaged in a front-end strike. If you hit something head-on, it can bend the fork evenly to the point it looks purpose-done. I would replace that. The degree of bend involved and re-bend required to straighten it would probably lower the yield point an unsafe level.


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## rusty.kirkpatrick (Dec 1, 2016)

They're probably missing some teeth from that one.


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## GTs58 (Dec 1, 2016)

What's the front or the back of that fork?  :eek:  That has some nice curves like a beautiful lady.


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## the tinker (Dec 1, 2016)

Easy fork to find if you want to replace. I agree with Rusty. Somebody hit something fast and dead on. I bet there was no front fender on that bike right?


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## Clark58mx (Dec 1, 2016)

the tinker said:


> Easy fork to find if you want to replace. I agree with Rusty. Somebody hit something fast and dead on. I bet there was no front fender on that bike right?



Yes, no front fender. It was a CWC Whizzer bike.


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## Clark58mx (Dec 1, 2016)

GTs58 said:


> What's the front or the back of that fork?  :eek:  That has some nice curves like a beautiful lady.



It curves torwards the front. It was on a CWC Whizzer. The bike looked like a board track racer.


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## Euphman06 (Dec 2, 2016)

It's definately curved back, someone might have flipped it around to make it ridable


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## Dale Alan (Dec 2, 2016)

Rare barn find ?


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## Dale Alan (Dec 2, 2016)

Fork end sure looks opened up.


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## bricycle (Dec 2, 2016)

wow....


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## ccmerz (Dec 2, 2016)

What about this one?


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## Clark58mx (Dec 2, 2016)

ccmerz said:


> What about this one?
> 
> View attachment 391245
> 
> View attachment 391246



Hello thanks for sharing the photo. That fork looks similar. Maybe it is a factory fork?


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## GTs58 (Dec 2, 2016)

Clark58mx said:


> Hello thanks for sharing the photo. That fork looks similar. Maybe it is a factory fork?




They are factory forks, but later re-bent by some crash test dummy.


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## GTs58 (Dec 2, 2016)

ccmerz said:


> What about this one?
> 
> View attachment 391245
> 
> View attachment 391246




Looks like someone crashed that one too and got tired of the tire rubbing the down tube so they flipped the fork 180.


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## SirMike1983 (Dec 2, 2016)

GTs58 said:


> Looks like some crashed that one to and got tired of the tire rubbing the down tube so they flipped the fork 180.




Yeah, that looks like an early type New World frame and that the fork got bent, then the user reversed it.


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## Dale Alan (Dec 3, 2016)

SirMike1983 said:


> Yeah, that looks like an early type New World frame and that the fork got bent, then the user reversed it.



+1
Headtube downtube joint looks tweaked too,maybe just the lighting .


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## dnc1 (Dec 3, 2016)

In my experience, limited to 3 hard crashes head on, the forks tend to bend at the steerer tube/fork crown area and nowhere near as curvaceously as the two examples above. Simply flipping the fork around I believe,  would not account for this shape/bend as I don't think you'd be able to get this shape unless the downtube was much further back than on a conventional diamond frame. I've seen a photo of something similar to the above before, but unfortunately I don't recall the manufacturer.
What's the paint/steel like where you think the bending occurred? I think you might see some rippling or cracking if there was an impact of such force, especially in a tubular structure.


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## locomotion (Dec 3, 2016)

ccmerz said:


> What about this one?
> 
> View attachment 391245
> 
> View attachment 391246




sweet bike Ken, what brand is that?


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## Clark58mx (Dec 3, 2016)

dnc1 said:


> In my experience, limited to 3 hard crashes head on, the forks tend to bend at the steerer tube/fork crown area and nowhere near as curvaceously as the two examples above. Simply flipping the fork around I believe,  would not account for this shape/bend as I don't think you'd be able to get this shape unless the downtube was much further back than on a conventional diamond frame. I've seen a photo of something similar to the above before, but unfortunately I don't recall the manufacturer.
> What's the paint/steel like where you think the bending occurred? I think you might see some rippling or cracking if there was an impact of such force, especially in a tubular structure.



Hello, the paint is smooth all the way down the fork. I removed from a prewar CWC Whizzer bike. I agree, with you that it couldn't have gotten bent that way by hitting something. It's either factory made or somebody really took the time to make the curves.


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## Euphman06 (Dec 3, 2016)

I wouldn't call that paint smooth... it's 40% rusted up. The front fender on this bike was removed because it was trashed on the impact that bent this fork. This is not a factory made bend. I would say this is a pretty common bend especially if there is no damage to the frame.  This headtube might be slightly bent as well if you hold a straight edge up to it to check it out. Lil brute fork straightener will fix this easy, but it's also a pretty common fork to find. Here's a similar bend on this road bike.. happens all the time with head on collisions.


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## Clark58mx (Dec 3, 2016)

Euphman06 said:


> I wouldn't call that paint smooth... it's 40% rusted up. The front fender on this bike was removed because it was trashed on the impact that bent this fork. This is not a factory made bend. I would say this is a pretty common bend especially if there is no damage to the frame.  This headtube might be slightly bent as well if you hold a straight edge up to it to check it out. Lil brute fork straightener will fix this easy, but it's also a pretty common fork to find. Here's a similar bend on this road bike.. happens all the time with head on collisions.



Thanks for the response and photo. I see what you mean.


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## ccmerz (Dec 3, 2016)

locomotion said:


> sweet bike Ken, what brand is that?



I appears to be a Schwinn Superior.  I see no physical impact damage to the fork, so factory custom bend?


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## SirMike1983 (Dec 3, 2016)

Euphman06 said:


> I wouldn't call that paint smooth... it's 40% rusted up. The front fender on this bike was removed because it was trashed on the impact that bent this fork. This is not a factory made bend. I would say this is a pretty common bend especially if there is no damage to the frame.  This headtube might be slightly bent as well if you hold a straight edge up to it to check it out. Lil brute fork straightener will fix this easy, but it's also a pretty common fork to find. Here's a similar bend on this road bike.. happens all the time with head on collisions.




Yeah, hit it in the right way, and you can put a perfect back-bend in the blades without bending the steerer tube. The bend will be smooth and look like someone did it on purpose.

The plus side is that if you have plain steel, you can bend it quite a distance without lowering the yield point too much. But there is a point at which you're re-bending too much to be safe. In the old days, a bike shop would put the fork in a jig and bend it straight again. If you were (or still are) really good, you can do it free hand in a vice, but you really need a keen eye to do it that way.


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## Euphman06 (Dec 3, 2016)

ccmerz said:


> I appears to be a Schwinn Superior.  I see no physical impact damage to the fork, so factory custom bend?





I don't think that's a superior, wrong fork from what I know. Most likely a new world racer. Fork is bent, schwinn never did any crazy forks like this.


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## Euphman06 (Dec 3, 2016)

The superior had high shoulders on the crown.


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## locomotion (Dec 4, 2016)

Euphman06 said:


> I don't think that's a superior, wrong fork from what I know. Most likely a new world racer. Fork is bent, schwinn never did any crazy forks like this.




not a Schwinn guy, but a real nice looking bicycle, and I really like the look of it with the bent fork


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## SHO2010 (Dec 4, 2016)

That bend looks to even to have been in an accident and re-bent I am thinking that has to have come from the factory or a custom shop.


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## dnc1 (Dec 4, 2016)

ccmerz said:


> What about this one?
> 
> View attachment 391245
> 
> View attachment 391246



Do you have a photo of this with the forks rotated 180 degrees?   I would love to see where the wheel sits.


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## GTs58 (Dec 4, 2016)

SHO2010 said:


> That bend looks to even to have been in an accident and re-bent I am thinking that has to have come from the factory or a custom shop.




It's a post factory professionally rebent fork. To get nice results like that just takes a little physics. The weight of the rider plus the speed of the bike and the resilience of the wall or object it was smashed directly in to. Pretty easy to do a nice job like that other than the recoup time healing from a broken head, missing teeth, black eyes and ripped off groin area.


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## Rambler (Dec 4, 2016)

GTs58 said:


> It's a post factory professionally rebent fork. To get nice results like that just takes a little physics. The weight of the rider plus the speed of the bike and the resilience of the wall or object it was smashed directly in to. Pretty easy to do a nice job like that other than the recoup time healing from a broken head, missing teeth, black eyes and ripped off groin area.




I too made a fork look exactly like that in my younger years. Rode at a good speed straight into the back of a parked car. Yes body and ego bused, luckily groin and teeth survived. Result was the same, professional looking rebent fork. Surprisingly frame did not get bent so I was able to replace my fork and ride again.


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## HIGGINSFOREVER (Dec 4, 2016)

To have forks bent like that someone would have to be doing about 65 m.p.h.


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## Dale Alan (Dec 4, 2016)

Soft tubular fork can be bent very easily.


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## ccmerz (Dec 4, 2016)

dnc1 said:


> Do you have a photo of this with the forks rotated 180 degrees?   I would love to see where the wheel sits.



No I do not.  Not my bike.


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## SHO2010 (Dec 4, 2016)

GTs58 said:


> It's a post factory professionally rebent fork. To get nice results like that just takes a little physics. The weight of the rider plus the speed of the bike and the resilience of the wall or object it was smashed directly in to. Pretty easy to do a nice job like that other than the recoup time healing from a broken head, missing teeth, black eyes and ripped off groin area.



Thanks for the visual GT if I have nightmares about smashing one of my bikes it is going to be on your head!


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## Rambler (Dec 4, 2016)

Dale Alan said:


> Soft tubular fork can be bent very easily.




Dale Alan is correct, soft tubular forks can be bent very easily. I still recall in the bike shop which I worked in if a fork only needed a little straightening and if brakes and such did not interfere with doing so, we would simply turn the wheel, fork,, handlebars around 180 degrees then firmly/swiftly push the bike colliding the front wheel into the back wall of the shop which would often result in bending the fork back straight again. It was a faster method than using the fork jack and it really did not take much effort to bend or straighten forks.


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## chitown (Dec 5, 2016)

They've been bending bent forks as long as they've been building forks. Clip from 1919:


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## Wcben (Dec 5, 2016)

Thought I'd posted this the other day.... 1903 Racycle Cushion Roadster....


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