vintagecycler

Hello,

I have 2 1970's Peugeot bikes I am pretty sure one of them has a bent fork but I am not sure about the other one. Here are some pictures of the bike's forks. The first 3 pics are from my 23" and the last 4 are from my 21" bike. Are these safe to ride?

Thanks,
Dan

Michael Angelo 

All of them can be cold set back into position.

jimmuller 

FWIW - I've always been curious why people try to judge a bent fork by looking at it (or taking pics) from the side. (No comment on the OP's query is intended.) If you just look down the side of the head tube it's pretty easy to see whether a fork is bent.

oddjob2

I think if you look at the old PUG catalogs for the late 1970's, all the forks have substantially the same geometry as your photos. They were designed that way and that's in part why they ride so nice.

If the forks arent symetrical, then you have an issue.

jimmuller 

My UO8 's fork is ever so slightly bent backwards. Has been that way for decades. I never hit anything especially hard but once I did bump the house wall slightly when stopping with wet wheels. Anyway, it seemed to handle exactly the same before as after. I had never looked at the fork that way before that event so I had no reference for whether that bent it or not.

Friends back then who owned other bikes such as Gitane, Motobecane, etc. used to tell me "You have seamed forks, you'll break the forks, your forks are going to bend, ah, you're going to break your forks", etc. (Of course, there is only one "forks" on a bike's front end.) I just kept riding it. Those things never happened. It just kept working. It still works 40 years later.