Dear Brendon, First and foremost, so glad you are ok! I think we all appreciate you sharing your unfortunate experience and as a warning to others of what could happen. This critical information will definitely guide me should I ever look into installing mudguards.
Again, thank you for taking the time and effort to post the photos. A picture is worth a thousand words. The forces those high quality steel tubes underwent must have been amazing. And you weren't going that fast! Stay Safe! Jeff Claremont, CA USA On Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 8:17:44 PM UTC-7 brendonoid wrote: > Thanks so much for everyones kind responses. It was really hard to take > clear pictures. I do not like take photos and try not to do it too much. > I hope these work; > headtube variance: > [image: APPAheadtubebend.jpg] > Doesn't look much in the picture but the bend in the middle was actually > enough to lift the headbadge loose. seemed to have fulcrumed a bend around > the second TT. > Downtube bend was lower in the tube and a lot longer than I was looking > for so my initial inspection missed it: > [image: APPAdowntubedistortion.jpg] > Yes that is an old bent Homer fork from an accident in 2013, its steerer > was not distorted so was a test bed for headset alignment, > Headset misalignment is 0.45mm according to my feeler gauge: > [image: APPAheadsetmisalignment0.45mm.jpg] > And finally you can see that the fork has bent where the steerer enters > the lug and it actually seems the crown lug has twisted slightly also. > Frustratingly the fork blades seem almost perfectly straight. > [image: APPAforkcrowntwist.jpg] > > I will look into the Eastern States options as far as frame repair is > concerned but at this point I might just try to get a new fork from Riv and > ride it as is. The frame isn't twisted at all and the double top tube gives > me confidence that if the downtube does fail it wont be catastrophic. The > chamfer on the FSA headset cups/bearings seem to absorb the misalignment > and function very smoothly. I suspect an old loose ball headset would not > function at all. > > Would probably had grief purchased an orange 57cm if they had still been > available...I do love orange. > On Tuesday, 30 June 2020 at 17:23:00 UTC+8 brendonoid wrote: > >> Hey guys, I just wanted to let everyone know the obviously stupid thing >> that I did even though I knew it was stupid has ruined my bike. Maybe this >> will help others as a warning or something... ? >> I've been running some cheap plastic fenders SOMA somethingorothers that >> did not have those plastic easy break stay connecters that most common >> sense fenders have. I knew this was a hazard but had ridden many 1000s of >> kilometres on them and had just sort of forgotten about it. >> It gets worse; I attached my Nitto Big Front rack (34f)? to do an >> overnighter on a nice trail while i was on holiday squeezing the adventure >> inbetween some bad weather and storms. On the second day, 80kms from the >> next town as I crested the hill...through a lot of debris and broken >> branches... doing ~15kmh (not exceeding 20kmh) my bike suddenly came to a >> stop. Just a firm enough stop to lift the back end up a little bit and make >> me have to put my feet down suddenly. >> The fender stays had lodged themselves into the fork along with the thick >> piece of bark that had caused the accident. >> "No worries! these cheap fenders finally failed!" I thought, "my stupid >> fault. Oh well, lucky I was going slow!' >> As I disentangled the mess, removing the front wheel, "Oh no, the fork is >> bent" I realised. "It's okay, the wheel isn't hitting the downtube I can >> still ride out of here... why has the head badged popped out funny though?" >> Oh, the headtube is shaped like a banana... >> Welp. >> I could have been doing 40km/h down hill and i could have died as well as >> killing my bike. This is what I am trying to commisserate myself with. It >> barely helps. >> I live in Western Australia. There are no local frame builders I know of >> or would trust to try and repair this frame. Shipping the bike back to >> Rivendell is going to be an expensive excercise and in these COVID times >> I'm not sure they can do anything anyway. I really just don't know what I >> am going to do. >> The accident was so minor and I have bent forks before. The problem here >> and the reason it has been so catastrophic is because the Big Strong Nitto >> rack reinforced the fork removing tis failure mode of being able to bend, >> that force was translated into the headtube as the fork actually bent where >> the steerer is welded into the crown lug translating that force into the >> headtube. >> I can post pictures if anyone is interested. The frame is weirdly >> straight and I cannot find any distortion in the maintubes despite the >> obvious bend in the head tube. The headset cups are only out of alignment >> to the point that a sealed bearing headset can absorb the variance and >> seemingly work ok. >> The bend has to have gone somewhere though and I'm not sure that if I got >> a new fork that I could feel safe riding the frame as is... >> I really just needed to vent, >> Thanks for listening, (reading I guess) >> Brendon M. >> >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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