JC higgins Jetflow

[RakudaJoe]

I recently bought this JetFlow for $60 without ties, chain guard, headlight, etc.. I noticed while the fork was on that the handlebars would not travel all the way until the front shock hit the frame I thought it was by design. Until I pulled the front fork off to clean and repack the bearings that there is a nasty bend in the fork. Is this normal and if not is the fork supposed to be true to the fork line? Should I try to bend her back? Thanks for advice. Joe

 

[Major Taylor Archive]

The steerer tube will bend like that from a front end collision. It could probably be (mostly) straightened again.

 

[Jay81]

The best & easiest way to fix that is with a fork straightener. You could make your own out of an old bumper jack like I did. Check out this thread I posted about it: https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/home-made-fork-straightener.127984/

 

[the tinker]

Best way to bend it back is with a fork jack. See restoration threads on this, as Jay said. You will hear of many guys saying they did it another way and more power to them but the risk of ruining your fork is great if you don't use a Jack. The thing is , Your fork was bent while in the confines of your frames head-tube. It should be straightened within that same or similar head-tube, completely installed with bearings and cups. It will straighten out perfect. It takes about a minute. To do otherwise you risk kinking it, or bending it in another spot, or ruining the threaded end. compounding your problem.

 

[RakudaJoe]

Thank you for the advice! Working on getting parts needed for fork bender tool like the ones in the other posts. Thank you again.

 

[the tinker]

So often after post something, I think of something else to say, or a better way of expressing it. I don't mean to put anyone else's way of doing things down, there are many ways to do things. I know fellows that have reversed a front fork and ram the bike into a wall and it turned out great for them. The bike pictured below is a great looking bike, and rides excellent. However, at some time in it's life the fork was bent like yours. After I bought this bike I tore it down and discovered the fork is kinked and I mean kinked. It's fine and causes no problems with the bike, they got it straight looking, but almost ruined it.
Your truss rods may be bent to match your fork. When you straighten it, have your fork completely assembled.
Good luck.

 

[HIGGINSFOREVER]

No big deal,Put a pipe in side and use a lot of heat and pull it back straight.

 

[RakudaJoe]

Here are the results: not perfect but effective I can swing the fork fully until the spring perch travels to the frame on both sides!

 

[RakudaJoe]

I also thought I would also ask the group if they had encountered crusty paint on older bikes. My understanding is this bike was in an old hardware store and never used. Maybe shipping or good customer caused the fork and other issues. There is old masking tape on the forks that cover up an gold pinstripe. I have cleaned what was in the first pic and its a clean pinstripe and line between the black and red paint.
In the pics you can see that there are shiny paint and dull paint. I can scrap off the dull paint with my fingernail and its gloss under like new. Is there a method to take this layer off. I tried rubbing compound in spots and the fingernail is the most effective because if the brittleness of the dull paint. I'm afraid it will take me several months of finger scraping to remove this layer from the rack, frame, fork.

Joe