Andrew Deane
Speeding Up
- Aug 17, 2007
- 121
- 0
This one is for all the techies out there.
If you saw my Tamagawa Blues post, you'll know that I bumped wheels with a mama-chari hard enough to buckle my front wheel. I know the damage on the front wheel necessitates a new one, but I was wondering about damage to the frame.
1) the frame is a low-end Trek aluminum; low end carbon fork
2) there "appears" to be no structural or cosmetic damage
3) there is a tiny irregularity (2 mm) in the sanded weld on the left-side weld where oversized down tube meets head tube (the paint isn't buckled or chipped, so I don't know if it's always been there and I simply didn't notice it until now)
4) no cracks or scratches in paint anywhere so I suspect only the tires (and my left hip - now a fetching shade of midnight blue with a diagonal raspberry slash a la early Chagall) made contact
My question is this: Must I take the frame to a reputable mechanic for a post-accident inspection?
If so, who should I take it to? What do they do to test the frame's integrity?
I read a few horror tales on the Internet, although I did not find anyone who'd actually had a catastrophic frame failure while bombing along a three-lane highway during peak commuting hours. (Saw a nasty video of some poor chump jumping a very long set of concrete steps on a tragically ill-equiped kid's bike: front wheel and head tube disintegrated on impact with the bottom stairs, and he got a free ride in an ambulance). So, if there appears to be no damage, is it safe to rely on an inexperienced visual inspection and rebuild my bike?
P.S. I want to buy a bike repair stand - the kind that clamps the seat tube or top tube and suspends the entire bike solidly. Anyone got one to sell or know a shop where I can get one at a moderate price?
If you saw my Tamagawa Blues post, you'll know that I bumped wheels with a mama-chari hard enough to buckle my front wheel. I know the damage on the front wheel necessitates a new one, but I was wondering about damage to the frame.
1) the frame is a low-end Trek aluminum; low end carbon fork
2) there "appears" to be no structural or cosmetic damage
3) there is a tiny irregularity (2 mm) in the sanded weld on the left-side weld where oversized down tube meets head tube (the paint isn't buckled or chipped, so I don't know if it's always been there and I simply didn't notice it until now)
4) no cracks or scratches in paint anywhere so I suspect only the tires (and my left hip - now a fetching shade of midnight blue with a diagonal raspberry slash a la early Chagall) made contact
My question is this: Must I take the frame to a reputable mechanic for a post-accident inspection?
If so, who should I take it to? What do they do to test the frame's integrity?
I read a few horror tales on the Internet, although I did not find anyone who'd actually had a catastrophic frame failure while bombing along a three-lane highway during peak commuting hours. (Saw a nasty video of some poor chump jumping a very long set of concrete steps on a tragically ill-equiped kid's bike: front wheel and head tube disintegrated on impact with the bottom stairs, and he got a free ride in an ambulance). So, if there appears to be no damage, is it safe to rely on an inexperienced visual inspection and rebuild my bike?
P.S. I want to buy a bike repair stand - the kind that clamps the seat tube or top tube and suspends the entire bike solidly. Anyone got one to sell or know a shop where I can get one at a moderate price?