Flying G

Someone shipped me a bike that wasn't packed well and I noticed that the right rear drop-out was bent inward on itself and is slightly off-center (see photo below). Obviously, it is impossible to mount the rear wheel with this damage. It is a Campy drop-out on a Gitane Super Corsa from the early 1970s. I measured the gap in the other undamaged drop-out (9.3mm) and the damaged drop-out is bent to a gap of 6mm.

Is the alloy in a vintage Campy so brittle that a repair likely to result in more damage? Is this truly repairable? Recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

SJX426 

Do a search. This has been discussed before and it is repairable. I believe Gugie uses the big hole in the handle of a crescent adjustable wrench to put over the end of the bent part and then bends it back. Follow up with DO alignment and you are good to go. The DO is malleable enough to be repaired without damage. Leave the adjusting screw in!

1 Lugnut

I just received a frame’s & the dropout was smished so much so, that I couldn’t mount the wheel in...on the d/o hanger side.
To open it up, I used a flat steel bar, about 7” long, that fit inbetween the d/o & muscled it open by hand untill the d/o was spread apart enough for the axle to slip in. The opposing d/o was 10mm, so I only had to spread the dropout apart 2mm. It bent open fairly easy.
If your d/o hanger is out of alignment, a bike shop should have the right tool to correct it.

Jeff Wills

Ditto to both of the above gentlemen. Pry the dropout back open just enough to allow the axle in. It's a good idea to run the adjuster screw in and out a few threads before you do this to make sure it turns freely before attempting any manipulation.
Take the frame to a good shop to have the dropouts and the derailleur hanger aligned and you're golden.

bark_eater 

And you call that a trainwreck...

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...ic-images.html

pcb 

As others have noted, careful work should sort this out fine.

If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, and/or if you don't have dropout alignment tools, you might want to ask around your LBSs to see if anybody can handle the work, and how much it might cost.

If you got the bike through an ebay or similar transaction that has some viable buyer's protection you might want to see if you can get some $$$ from the seller for repairing the damage.

dedhed

Mods may want to merge this and the thread in Mechanics

gugie 

Kinda. I use the hole in the handle of an 8" (not 6, not 12, 8) to tweek a dropout that's too open.

This one is too closed. A lot of tools can be jammed in there to pry it open, even an adjustable wrench, and there's really no downside to trying. Just do tweek a little at a time, and "sneak up to" the point where the opening is the same front to rear. I use some dropout alignment tools, then a deraillleur hanger adjustment tool at the end, but if you can get the wheel in and out easily and the derailleur works fine, I'd call it good unless you're a perfectionist.
@1 Lugnut, @Jeff Wills and @pcb have it right as well.

francophile 

I contacted gugie directly about a Claud Butler which suffered the same fate at some point in life. My specific adjustible wrench wouldn't work in the manner described, but I was still able to open it up. Here are some before/after pics. Once I opened the slot, I threw my Park hanger alignment tool on it to get the dropout back in position again, then used my dropout alignment set to square those (then repeated once more). Fixed every issue the bike had with noisy shifts and not engaging the top/bottom of cluster.

Worked out great. Just go slow and use steady, even pressure. No pics of the opening job, but look at how cocked up this thing was! You can do it!!

As-shipped condition ... bike was shipped with the rear wheel on, not sure how this happened.




Look at how crooked this is, almost S shaped.



Without the mech installed:




After opening it up, but BEFORE I used the hanger alignment tool to get the dropout top/bottom flanges in vertical alighment.



Realignment sessions 1 & 2





Everything reinstalled. Shifted like a dream after. Notice the dropout looks ~1mm more-open. That apparently was an end result of fixing the vertical alignment, pulling the bottom of the dropout outboard. It doesn't matter, really, and I'm not concerned enough to tweak anymore.




PS - big thanks to @gugie for providing sound frame advice. I have all the tools to do this stuff and I'm not necessarily afraid to do it, but I *am* an engineer thus worried I'm not going to do it *correctly* and will mess something up.

gugie 

Isn't there a country western song that goes, "Mama don't raise your son to be an engineer..."

francophile 

Man, there really should be.

4funbikes

Here’s one that’s a little more questionable...

Flying G

Thanks everyone for the quick responses, advice, stories and of course, the photos! I have never encountered this before so it was reassuring to consult the wise men of the BF.

I asked the LBS to proceed and am reasonably confident that all should god well, even those pesky adjuster bolts that will need to be replaced.

Will post an update once the patient recovers from surgery.

Thanks again!

gugie 

Wow, that may be too far.
On the other hand you can't break it anymore than it is, and might be successful using the method I detailed above.

4funbikes

It actually straightened out quite easily. Of course I didn't take an after picture.
This was a nice early Salsa frame that a friend had ridden for years until.. He was ready to relegate it to a hall hanger until I intervened.

shoota 

I recently saved a De Rosa that was worse than that. Check my threads for the info and pics on that process.

mechanicmatt

As an engineer, I persuade all to not be one.