mangled drop outs- factory correction, home brew repair after accident or ???
 

I bought a really beat up Poliquin Randonee from marketplace a while ago. I was curious about Poliquin which was a bike shop in Québec City that either re-branded bicycles to 'Poliquin' or maybe built their own frames. I have seen a handful in Montréal where I live and most commonly they seem to be re-branded Cannondales though interestingly, I read in another thread that a Poliquin owner reached out to Cannondale to confirm this and Cannondale said they never sold their frames for re-branding so perhaps Poliquin did this without permission.

The Poliquin Randonee I have is really beat but I was planning to rebuild it anyway. I just noticed that the drop outs have been filed out and I have ever seen this before. I mounted the rear wheel in the drop outs where they have not been altered and the wheel is badly off-center. When I mount the wheel in the filed out area the wheel is perfectly centred. I am just curious what others think the story is. I wondered if the bike was poorly manufactured and the filing was done at the factory to get the wheel spinning true but the workmanship on the frame is actually pretty decent and the filing is very rough so now I am wondering if the bike was in some kind of collision or accident and this was done to get the wheel trued up.

Images in my gallery- can't post them here yet I am too new.

I would appreciate any thoughts!


Thanks

Apparently things going to your album don't get show immediately to us in your profile either. But I did find them in the general Gallery sorting by "recents".

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b04b41f38f.jpghttps://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...67e95ada40.jpg

I guess this are the pics you are talking about.

I'm not big into saving old bikes anymore. There seem to be way too many of them. I'd vote for letting it be scrap steel. But other's will be here soon with recommendations.

Looks like some rust on the frame.:foo:

Thank-you for posting the pictures!

Sorry should have been more clear- most of the Poliquins I have seen around Montréal are rebranded Cannondale frames which are of course aluminum. This is one is steel and not Cannondale. I am not sure of Poliquin actually made this one or if it is also rebranded.

I very much doubt the bike left the factory that way, although it could have been off at the factory, but I doubt it.

So the NDS was filed up, and the DS was filed down.

The first thing I would do on your bike is to try to estimate the rear triangle alignment.


If you got the frame back in alignment, you could put your dropout adjusters back in, and push the wheel forward into the good part of the dropout.

Oh, another thought. Were you using the wheel that came with the bike? Have you checked the dishing on the rear wheel? There are a few ways to check the dishing without fancy tools, for example "flipping" the wheel.

That reminds me of the dropout modification used for weight-weenie Hi-E hubs, but that bike would be incongruous for that type of "upgrade."

@CliffordK may be onto something with his suggestion that it was done to correct some perceived rear triangle misalignment.

I just occurred to me that the material was removed near the top of one side and near the bottom of the other side. So maybe the dropouts aren't in alignment and that's how a previous owner corrected it.

Might be from the frame being bent, but I could also imagine a bent axel making someone believe the dropouts were not aligned and the took a file to them anyway.

I'm leaning towards this being a wheel dish problem.

It looks like the DS was filed down and back.
The NDS was filed up.

So, if the rim was too far to the NDS side (not dished towards the DS), then to correct for the seatstays, the person would file the DS down and NDS up. To correct for the chainstays, one would file the DS back.

If you have another rear wheel that is built properly that fits, try putting it in the bike.

Or, with the wheel that was with the bike, what happens when you flip the wheel around the other way?

That bike may well ride a bit wonky, especially at speed.

If you fix the wheel, then add your Campy style dropout adjuster screws to keep the wheel forward in the good part of the dropouts.

The frame, of course, could also be bent.

Thanks for all the great thoughts. I have some data:


wheel axel: the wheel axel is not bent

frame: I used RJ the Bike Guy's string technique and the frame is out of alignment by 4mm (in the direction of the NDS)

wheel dish: ding ding ding YES the major factor seems to be a wheel dish problem! there is 16mm difference between the DS and NDS


So I will start with correcting the major dish problem, then try to get the frame into slightly better alignment and maybe this thing will be rideable if I use adjustor screws to keep the wheel forward in the dropouts.



Thanks again!

Can you get an estimate of distance between dropouts, and the wheel over locknut dimension (OLD)? Does the wheel go in easily?

126mm, 130mm, 135mm, etc.

Cliffordk, the distance between the dropouts is 130mm and so is the OLD. The wheel goes in easily.