I need some advice on the safety and propriety of continuing to use the steel fork on my Bianchi Pista after a crash. I, of course, plan on going to the local bike shop for its diagnosis, but I’d like to arm myself with all your second and third (and so on) opinions. Thanks for the help.
It’s a long and self-deprecatingly hilarious story that I won’t fully recount, but here’s the gist. While coming home from the grocery store at night, I was riding on the sidewalk because the street it accompanies has no bike lane. This sidewalk is over-designed with trees and small, 12” high brick flower boxes sprinkled throughout. I’ll use the excuse of bad nighttime vision, but the long and short of it is I hit the flower box perfectly square at a slow cruising speed of about 15 mph.
After recovering (unscathed) from the best non-mountain bike endo ever and walking my still true but now flat wheel home, I later realized that my fork is bent at the steer tube. The wheel sits as perfectly straight as before inside the fork and the fork was in no way twisted. The only problem is that the fork is slightly bent backwards at the point where the steer tube is connected to the blades. In short, it looks like the fork has a much shorter rake. The bike is still rideable despite the bend at the steer tube because I hit the flower box square and, amazingly enough, the headset was not damaged.
My question is whether (in your opinion based on this information, sorry, I don't have a digital camera) I should continue to ride the bike or if I need to buy a new fork. I don’t want to go on riding a death trap, but I’d rather not spend the money for a new fork and track forks are in short supply on e-bay. I also know that steel is pretty malleable, but I’m not sure if this property should be applied to something vital like a fork.
Thanks for your help.
It’s a long and self-deprecatingly hilarious story that I won’t fully recount, but here’s the gist. While coming home from the grocery store at night, I was riding on the sidewalk because the street it accompanies has no bike lane. This sidewalk is over-designed with trees and small, 12” high brick flower boxes sprinkled throughout. I’ll use the excuse of bad nighttime vision, but the long and short of it is I hit the flower box perfectly square at a slow cruising speed of about 15 mph.
After recovering (unscathed) from the best non-mountain bike endo ever and walking my still true but now flat wheel home, I later realized that my fork is bent at the steer tube. The wheel sits as perfectly straight as before inside the fork and the fork was in no way twisted. The only problem is that the fork is slightly bent backwards at the point where the steer tube is connected to the blades. In short, it looks like the fork has a much shorter rake. The bike is still rideable despite the bend at the steer tube because I hit the flower box square and, amazingly enough, the headset was not damaged.
My question is whether (in your opinion based on this information, sorry, I don't have a digital camera) I should continue to ride the bike or if I need to buy a new fork. I don’t want to go on riding a death trap, but I’d rather not spend the money for a new fork and track forks are in short supply on e-bay. I also know that steel is pretty malleable, but I’m not sure if this property should be applied to something vital like a fork.
Thanks for your help.