the tinker
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Dougfisk hit the nail on the head. Somewhere buried in this thread is "fork straightening by using a fork jack."
This is the only safe and sure way to straighten a fork. If you attempt to put a large pipe over the fork to bend it back a fair amount of pressure is directed at the top of the fork where the threads are open and the area is weak. the rest at the end of your pipe. The results can be the threaded end ending up bent in and the bottom end having yet another bend in addition to the original problem. When one tries to correct it the fork kinks.
If that fork were mine I would install in the bike frame and use the jack to bend it to the correct spot. Running it into a wall may sometimes work but you have no control. One runs the risk of: Over-bending it. ...Knocking one fork leg further back the the other...... wrecking a rim......putting black tire marks on your wall.
The steering tube will still always have that kink but will look ok and function well on your bike .
The reason the fork jack works every time with perfect results is your fork is being straightened within the confines of the bike's headtube that it was bent back in the first place. So.... do you have an old car jack? Everyone has a wall to run into don't make your fork worse......or you will end up cutting the steering tube off and welding a new tube taken from another fork on as shown on the last photo.
This is the only safe and sure way to straighten a fork. If you attempt to put a large pipe over the fork to bend it back a fair amount of pressure is directed at the top of the fork where the threads are open and the area is weak. the rest at the end of your pipe. The results can be the threaded end ending up bent in and the bottom end having yet another bend in addition to the original problem. When one tries to correct it the fork kinks.
If that fork were mine I would install in the bike frame and use the jack to bend it to the correct spot. Running it into a wall may sometimes work but you have no control. One runs the risk of: Over-bending it. ...Knocking one fork leg further back the the other...... wrecking a rim......putting black tire marks on your wall.
The steering tube will still always have that kink but will look ok and function well on your bike .
The reason the fork jack works every time with perfect results is your fork is being straightened within the confines of the bike's headtube that it was bent back in the first place. So.... do you have an old car jack? Everyone has a wall to run into don't make your fork worse......or you will end up cutting the steering tube off and welding a new tube taken from another fork on as shown on the last photo.
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