is this fork bent?
09-02-20, 06:15 AM
#1
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is this fork bent?
1: as the tittle says , is this fork bent?
2: do you think is better to replace for safety?
2: do you think is better to replace for safety?
09-02-20, 06:35 AM
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Yes, I'd say it's bent, looks bent, and the wheel is close to the downtube.
If they are steel forks I'd straighten them, it doesn't look they kind of bike that gets extreme air much.
Go to Google and chose a straightening method of your choice.
When I was a kid, we'd fix this situation by taking the front wheel out, wraping some rags around the fork legs, jamming them through a road drain grate and heaving up on the back wheel until we were satisfied with the degree of un-bent-ness. The are much more professional ways of doing the same.
If they are steel forks I'd straighten them, it doesn't look they kind of bike that gets extreme air much.
Go to Google and chose a straightening method of your choice.
When I was a kid, we'd fix this situation by taking the front wheel out, wraping some rags around the fork legs, jamming them through a road drain grate and heaving up on the back wheel until we were satisfied with the degree of un-bent-ness. The are much more professional ways of doing the same.
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09-02-20, 06:41 AM
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Sure looks like it.
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09-02-20, 07:35 AM
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Yes, I'd say it's bent, looks bent, and the wheel is close to the downtube.
If they are steel forks I'd straighten them, it doesn't look they kind of bike that gets extreme air much.
Go to Google and chose a straightening method of your choice.
When I was a kid, we'd fix this situation by taking the front wheel out, wraping some rags around the fork legs, jamming them through a road drain grate and heaving up on the back wheel until we were satisfied with the degree of un-bent-ness. The are much more professional ways of doing the same.
If they are steel forks I'd straighten them, it doesn't look they kind of bike that gets extreme air much.
Go to Google and chose a straightening method of your choice.
When I was a kid, we'd fix this situation by taking the front wheel out, wraping some rags around the fork legs, jamming them through a road drain grate and heaving up on the back wheel until we were satisfied with the degree of un-bent-ness. The are much more professional ways of doing the same.
in case this is aluminium is still worth to straighten up?
09-02-20, 08:05 AM
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If the fork is steel it can be straightened if the welds at the unicrown are good. The photo makes it appear there is a crack at one of the welds.
09-02-20, 08:25 AM
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based on the welds and the shape of that fork, I believe it's steel and can be bent back. be cautious.
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09-02-20, 08:55 AM
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That looks awful. I wouldn't even ride it, lest I be tempted to leave it alone. Even if it's steel I'd rather replace it than try to bend it back,
09-02-20, 09:02 AM
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How do you all know the fork is not designed that way? That's why I asked if he or anyone crashed it. Sure it looks off, but if you perfectly centered the line dedhed drew in the headtube it would bisect the front dropouts. I'm not saying it's not bent, but I think more information is needed. OP have you tried googling the same bike? Do they look the same?
09-02-20, 09:16 AM
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How do you all know the fork is not designed that way? That's why I asked if he or anyone crashed it. Sure it looks off, but if you perfectly centered the line dedhed drew in the headtube it would bisect the front dropouts. I'm not saying it's not bent, but I think more information is needed. OP have you tried googling the same bike? Do they look the same?
If you look at the space between the wheel and the frame, it’s too small even for a quick handlIng road bike.
Additionally, the Atala website for their urban bikes doesn’t show any bikes with a negative trail.
Finally, the bike just looks “odd”.
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09-02-20, 12:27 PM
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and as Sir Isaac Newton indicated, bending it back will take a force equal to the crash velocity to bend it back..
09-02-20, 01:46 PM
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How do you all know the fork is not designed that way? That's why I asked if he or anyone crashed it. Sure it looks off, but if you perfectly centered the line dedhed drew in the headtube it would bisect the front dropouts. I'm not saying it's not bent, but I think more information is needed. OP have you tried googling the same bike? Do they look the same?
Not very many bicycle companies are going to make a bike with neutral or negative trail. Having the hub behind the steering axis is going to make the bike unstable and no one would make an urban bike that way.
If you look at the space between the wheel and the frame, it’s too small even for a quick handlIng road bike.
Additionally, the Atala website for their urban bikes doesn’t show any bikes with a negative trail.
Finally, the bike just looks “odd”.
If you look at the space between the wheel and the frame, it’s too small even for a quick handlIng road bike.
Additionally, the Atala website for their urban bikes doesn’t show any bikes with a negative trail.
Finally, the bike just looks “odd”.
The fork is obviously bent, and the line someone drew indicates the axle is behind the axis on which the fork steerer turns, which is not how forks are made on any bike I have seen.
But, it's not negative 'trail' that this fork has been bent into - it's negative 'rake'. Trail is the derived dimension indicating how far the bottom point on the wheel is behind the point where a line along the steering axis intersects the ground. Generally speaking, a bike with more trail will be more stable and less twitchy.
The rake of the fork is the distance the wheel axle is placed in front of the steering axis. More rake reduces the trail, which results in a 'twitchier' or less stable bike. Less rake, as the damage to this fork has caused, results in a more trail and a more stable bike, but in this case the added stability might make it so the bike is very difficult to get to turn into corners.
09-02-20, 02:36 PM
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How do you all know the fork is not designed that way? That's why I asked if he or anyone crashed it. Sure it looks off, but if you perfectly centered the line dedhed drew in the headtube it would bisect the front dropouts. I'm not saying it's not bent, but I think more information is needed. OP have you tried googling the same bike? Do they look the same?
Custom build maybe.
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09-02-20, 02:56 PM
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Looks bent to me too. Unless it's just the camera angle of your pic, then none of the newer models on their website show the fork ends being behind the centerline of the headset. Nor do they have the fender and wheel that close to the down tube.
https://www.atala.it/prodotti/toscana-28-6v/
https://www.atala.it/en/categories/bikes/urban/
And it's aluminum. At least the frame is. The large welds should have given that away. Though on more expensive aluminum they do smaller and nicer looking welds.
Or maybe I'm wrong, I just ran a translator on the page. I'm used to seeing aluminum with those big welds on other aluminum products besides bikes. This Hi-Ten stuff is new to me.
https://www.atala.it/prodotti/toscana-28-6v/
https://www.atala.it/en/categories/bikes/urban/
Or maybe I'm wrong, I just ran a translator on the page. I'm used to seeing aluminum with those big welds on other aluminum products besides bikes. This Hi-Ten stuff is new to me.
Last edited by Iride01; 09-02-20 at 03:05 PM.
09-02-20, 03:03 PM
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Yes, I'd say it's bent, looks bent, and the wheel is close to the downtube.
If they are steel forks I'd straighten them, it doesn't look they kind of bike that gets extreme air much.
Go to Google and chose a straightening method of your choice.
When I was a kid, we'd fix this situation by taking the front wheel out, wraping some rags around the fork legs, jamming them through a road drain grate and heaving up on the back wheel until we were satisfied with the degree of un-bent-ness. The are much more professional ways of doing the same.
If they are steel forks I'd straighten them, it doesn't look they kind of bike that gets extreme air much.
Go to Google and chose a straightening method of your choice.
When I was a kid, we'd fix this situation by taking the front wheel out, wraping some rags around the fork legs, jamming them through a road drain grate and heaving up on the back wheel until we were satisfied with the degree of un-bent-ness. The are much more professional ways of doing the same.
09-02-20, 03:08 PM
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Get a magnet, sticks to the fork, steel, straighten them. Doesn't stick, aluminium, you could straighten them, but it's risky, and better to find some new ones.
09-02-20, 03:18 PM
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...it is impossible to diagnose a minor bend in a bicycle fork using a photograph. Major damage, sure, not a problem.
Here's an example of a picture I took of one, that looks bent in the picture, but I know is not from my own inspection.
...it is impossible to diagnose a minor bend in a bicycle fork using a photograph. Major damage, sure, not a problem.
Here's an example of a picture I took of one, that looks bent in the picture, but I know is not from my own inspection.
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09-02-20, 03:38 PM
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09-02-20, 03:59 PM
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The line dedhed added to the top picture of the OP's bike actually passes in front of the dropout and the photo's seems to have been taken pretty close to perpendicular to the frame so the perspective should be accurate.
09-02-20, 05:51 PM
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Not that hard really. If you take a straight edge and lay it along the centerline of the headtubes in both of the photos of your bike, the line passes a fair bit behind the forks' dropouts showing a reasonable amount of rake. This is apparent even on my monitor's screen.
The line dedhed added to the top picture of the OP's bike actually passes in front of the dropout and the photo's seems to have been taken pretty close to perpendicular to the frame so the perspective should be accurate.
The line dedhed added to the top picture of the OP's bike actually passes in front of the dropout and the photo's seems to have been taken pretty close to perpendicular to the frame so the perspective should be accurate.
It’s pretty easy to see that the hub is behind the steer axis in the Atala.
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09-02-20, 05:56 PM
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My ER copay is $125.
New forks, about the same.
I'd probably save the worry / pain / recovery time......
New forks, about the same.
I'd probably save the worry / pain / recovery time......
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09-02-20, 06:35 PM
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Not that hard really. If you take a straight edge and lay it along the centerline of the headtubes in both of the photos of your bike, the line passes a fair bit behind the forks' dropouts showing a reasonable amount of rake. This is apparent even on my monitor's screen.
The line dedhed added to the top picture of the OP's bike actually passes in front of the dropout and the photo's seems to have been taken pretty close to perpendicular to the frame so the perspective should be accurate.
The line dedhed added to the top picture of the OP's bike actually passes in front of the dropout and the photo's seems to have been taken pretty close to perpendicular to the frame so the perspective should be accurate.
You can't simply state "the photo's seems to have been taken pretty close to perpendicular to the frame so the perspective should be accurate." with any certainty, because in any given case there's not enough context on what may or may not have induced the distortion. Once more, look at both the pictures I took of the same bike (same camera, different light conditions, thus different settings.) Someone should drop that red line on my first picture, and see where it ends up.
There are a million "fork looks bent to me" posts on teh Biekforooms. Not all of them are bent. There's a very good explanation for it, whether you want to believe me or not.
