Originally Posted by 3alarmer

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...is it just the wheels ? Is the frame OK ? Dropouts on this sort of bike have a certain amount of repairability, and can be cold bent straight and parallel if you know what you are doing and don't do it too often.
On the other hand, I scored a great fork at the co-op from a Steve Rex custom that someone backed over and crushed the frame. It went onto another American builder bike (a Smolenski) and now lives again.

So I guess I'm saying that it kind of makes you philosophical, once the shock wears off.

While eating breakfast at a cafe with a street view in Palo Alto, I once watched a guy going off on his Sunday morning ride stop for cash at a drive through ATM forget that there was a ceiling overhand for rain, and scrape his roof rack and two high dollar bikes off the top of his car down onto the trunk and off the back. The noise it made while in progress was horrible, but he didn't manage to stop in time to do any good. I actually couldn't finish my delicious breakfast...and that just never happens.