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Rudge Whitworth...Not What I Expected...BUT!

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Put the crown of the fork in a nice strong vice, put a cheater pipe down over the leg (one that will go to the bend) and give it a few off-n-on "suggestions" the correct direction.
Since cold-bending steel creates heat at the bend, I do multiple half-strength pulls so the metal doesnt get too hot and risk cracking or snapping. Much like the heat created when trying to muscle a frozen bolt out of something.
 
Put the crown of the fork in a nice strong vice, put a cheater pipe down over the leg (one that will go to the bend) and give it a few off-n-on "suggestions" the correct direction.
Since cold-bending steel creates heat at the bend, I do multiple half-strength pulls so the metal doesnt get too hot and risk cracking or snapping. Much like the heat created when trying to muscle a frozen bolt out of something.
I've had success with this method three times. The fourth time, I just couldn't get it straight, and kinked the fork tube at the top. This fail happened to be a 4130 unicrown fork, so I think my success rate might be even better than 75% with hi-ten traditional crown forks. But the point of this story is that only after ruining the last fork did I discover my local bike co-op charges only $28 to straighten a fork. For anything I care about, I'm going to farm that out to them in the future.

By the way, nice score on the Rudge. I probably would have offered $25 before walking (some neat Rudge specific parts there, being a '50s bike) - you obviously did even better!
 
I've had success with this method three times. The fourth time, I just couldn't get it straight, and kinked the fork tube at the top. This fail happened to be a 4130 unicrown fork, so I think my success rate might be even better than 75% with hi-ten traditional crown forks. But the point of this story is that only after ruining the last fork did I discover my local bike co-op charges only $28 to straighten a fork. For anything I care about, I'm going to farm that out to them in the future.
Cant win em every time thats for sure. Ive lost count of how many Ive done this way but Ide ive only done it on one 4130 fork and it was a bent neck so wasnt too bad to fix. Ide rather have 28 bucks...haha
 
Doesn't appear to be any, but I'll do a better eyeballing tomorrow. I'm in the process of stripping the entire bike, and some small pieces are already in Evapo-Rust. 🤪
Nice! Please keep updating on your progress and post lots of pics! 😁 This is a very cool bike and I'd love to see it brought back to life.
 
Cant win em every time thats for sure. Ive lost count of how many Ive done this way but Ide ive only done it on one 4130 fork and it was a bent neck so wasnt too bad to fix. Ide rather have 28 bucks...haha
Yeah, $28 is still a good amount of money in my world - especially considering this fail was on a bike for which I paid $100. But the chrome Sunlite CroMo canti fork I bought cost a multiple of what the repair would, and it's not the right color. On the plus side, those forks come with a really long steer tube threaded all the way down so you can cut them to fit. I used three 20mm 1" spacers to allow me to raise my Nitto Albatross bars way up without spending on a Technomic stem. So it probably evened out in the end $$ wise. Enough of me hijacking the thread though. I just thought on the odd chance @HARPO hadn't considered the pro option (assuming someone in the area would perform that work), it's a way to go. If everything else on that bike gets sorted out of the parts bin, and he's more comfortable farming out the straightening, then I'd say getting a cool '50s Rudge for $30 plus tires and incidentals could be a bargain. I bought a ridable '52 Dunelt for $30 once...
 
Yeah, $28 is still a good amount of money in my world - especially considering this fail was on a bike for which I paid $100. But the chrome Sunlite CroMo canti fork I bought cost a multiple of what the repair would, and it's not the right color. On the plus side, those forks come with a really long steer tube threaded all the way down so you can cut them to fit. I used three 20mm 1" spacers to allow me to raise my Nitto Albatross bars way up without spending on a Technomic stem. So it probably evened out in the end $$ wise. Enough of me hijacking the thread though. I just thought on the odd chance @HARPO hadn't considered the pro option (assuming someone in the area would perform that work), it's a way to go. If everything else on that bike gets sorted out of the parts bin, and he's more comfortable farming out the straightening, then I'd say getting a cool '50s Rudge for $30 plus tires and incidentals could be a bargain. I bought a ridable '52 Dunelt for $30 once...
I'm going to check two local bike shops if they can do the fork once I remove it. I'm not even going to attempt to do it myself. I'd really like to keep as much OEM as I can, so we'll see. A donor fork might have to be the way to go though.

I'll check a little later as to how the Evapo-Rust bath went... 🤪
 
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SirMike -

be the Raleigh Industries propstand a Shuresta item or be it from someone else?



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I just looked back on one of the first photos I had taken. Apparently the headlight bracket was turned during the crash way back when. Crazy.

IMG_2383.jpeg
 
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