Folding Bikes - Bent brake :-(

I was out riding, and I'd stopped for a moment to take a drink of water out of my bag when I accidentally dropped my bike from under me. When I got home, I noticed the right brake caliper (I have the Shimano ultegra) is bent! So, is there a way to straighten it up without messing up my bike? Is this going to be something that's going to decrease the quality of my ride if I leave it as is? I'm not sure what to do. I just don't like looking at one brake bent and the other brake is fine!

Koffee

Koffee how about a digital photo of the bent brake and a posting on the mechanics forum?

The only piece I can imagine being bent is the slotted tab that holds the brake pad. To a limited extent, I think you could straighten it (or have a bike shop do it), first removing it from the bike, of course! It sounds like it bent in such a way that the brake is still functional and not dragging.

Or are you talking about the STI lever? Fixing that is going to be difficult-impossible as they aren't built to be rehabed. (I messed up the front (left) STI shifter on my road bike and ended up replacing the pair of STI levers/shifters). wpflem is right - a picture posted to the bike mechanics forum will be your best bet to get help here.

If the bike is rideable, take it over to your LBS of choice - worst comes to worst, they can replace it with a Shimano 105 or Tiagra component - same functionality, just won't look a pretty and weigh a little more. You can do the Ultegra part when someone has a sale (calipers are pretty inexpensive, it is the levers that cost $$ but Ultegra-9 is coming down as it gets replaced by U-10 components).

Bleah. I'll try to get a picture up in the next day. I hope it's just a matter of untaping and resetting....

Koffee