jonwvara 

I was 200 miles away when the bike got bumped--I'd loaned it to a friend who was going to ride with his family for a couple of days on Cape Cod. Funnily enough, one reason that I gave him the Dawes rather than one of my other bikes is that the original finish is so scratched up that I figured I wouldn't have to worry about any other minor scrapes it might pick up from rubbing other bikes and the bike rack.

Anyway, the arrangement my friend made with the driver (who was a young woman out driving with her mother) is that I'd figure what it would cost to fix, send them the amount, and they'd send a check. My wild-ass estimate is $200--could be less than that if it's just straightening the crank and replacing the spindle, or could be more if I need a new crankset and a frame alignment. I do have the woman's driver's license info, etc. if non-payment becomes an issue.

But I'm cautiously optimistic that the frame itself is okay. If the impact that bend the spindle and crankarm affected the frame as well, I'd expect it to have twisted the bottom bracket tube a little relative to the rest of the frame. But the back wheel seems to track perfectly--still centered beween the chainstays. I'm unsure whether I'll take the frame somewhere for a checkup (which would involve stripping it all the way down) or just build it back up and ride it, and figure it's fine if there are no signs of anything amiss with the ride.

I don't want to turn this into an insurance thread, but my guess is that an adjuster would just have regarded it as an obsolete, beat-up old bike of no particular value.

Uncle Randy

It depends on how you present your claim. The fact that the driver wants to pay you for the damages means that she hasn't reported this to her insurance company.

jimmuller 

jwv, it's good to hear that none of you humans was damaged. It's still a bummer of course.

The Golden Boy 

Best wishes- I hope everything works out OK.

Cool bike, it's a shame it took a hit.

onespeedbiker

A friend of friend once had the same problem, bought a replacement crank and asked me to switch it over. Unfortunately the replacement crank was French and the bent crank was English. I wrapped some duck tape around the end of the crank, ovalized a pie to fit over the end of the crank arm and bent it back; no muss no fuss; the owner said it was as good as new!. If it does feel off when it pedaling, you can tweaking it some (even if you use a hydraulic press there is no guarantee if will be bent back the way it was) more or replace the crank; certainly trying to straighten it won't cost you anything. The spindle should be significantly stronger than the crank, if it only looks bent from the picture angle you should be okay.

dddd

I like what I'm hearing here, especially since the pipe can be slid over the end of the crank to the exact amount that puts the corrective bending exactly where needed. Brilliant!

Maybe slice a length of garden hose or similar tubing material to use as a protective buffer between the pipe and the crankarm, or wrap with cardboard or whatever.

And since this crank and spindle are more or less wedded for life, a little bit of remaining misalignment in both parts could balance out perfectly, and will if the pedal can be made to run true under the rider's foot.

I think jonwvara is correct in assessing his frame as undamaged, especially as the more-fragile extremities and the wheels themselves are undamaged. I've had bent crankarms before and never noticed any frame involvement from either the accidental impact or subsequent correction (bending) of the crankarm.

jimmuller 

Just two questions. What does it being French instead of English have to do with it? And what kind of pie was it? Fruit, chocolate, cream, cheese? Maybe that's why it being French mattered.

I know pie are usually round, and mathematically pie are square. I've never seen an ovalized pie.

dddd

IIR, French spindle diameter might be 14mm, vs. English 9/16", which is supposedly correctible by drilling with a 9/16" bit if you have a drill-press.

This thread was starting to make me hungry, so glad to have a fat, leftover half-burrito to balance out the 31.46 miles that I just rode in the hills on my Super sport.

As I understand, the pie was almost certainly a pizza pie, thin crust, wrapped around the crankarm before applying the pipe.

onespeedbiker

Pie is pipe when misspelled and run through a spell check or a typo that spell check didn't correct as it spells a recognized word. Also I usually think of English pie as savory and French pie as sweet (not really but it's all I could come up with in short notice). The problem with the French crank arm was as dddd described and I did not know about the 9/16" drill fix. Speaking of pie my daughter is in town for her birthday and we bought her an olallieberry pipe from a local bakery called the Buttery; indeed it is very yummy.


* typo was intentional this time

Lenton58 

Condolences!

I agree with some others: the frame MUST be checked out. String it up and have the right measuring tools on hand ... or go to a frame maker. As for the crank: Maybe I am not the purist you are; nevertheless, an old SR aluminum alloy crank is close in appearance — although not cottered. A modern, most excellent grade of cartridge BB by Tange is about $40. The BB in place must have experienced trauma. The spindle will probably be OK, but the bearing races must have been pounded, but not so you will "see" it.

I may show ignorance here, but you might consider this: if the crank is a forged item, bending out by pressing (not beating) might be a viable option. If it is a polished casting I'd bin the crankset. If it were aluminum I'd bin it no matter what. I trust that Frank the Welder will know more about metallurgy than I ever will, so ask him.

Good luck ... I sympathize in kind, cuz I built a Dawes Atlantis for a friend and learned to love the thing.

dddd

A this point, and once the crankset is made rideable again, a hands-off steering check followed by a visual sighting down of the assembled bike from several vantage points would satisfy me as to it's suitability to be returned to service.

After all, that's all that I do with any of the many used bikes I buy, and there's no telling what abuse that any of them have been subjected to, or even if they were built straight in the first place.

If the bike looks and rides good, it is good, and that goes for even my racing bike of the last 17 years. If it gets messed up, it'll let me know, and then I'll fix it.

jonwvara 

That's pretty much the approach I have in mind. Though I admit that I sometimes flirt with the idea of having a complete repaint done since the bike has a little more patina than I'm really happy with. There's some persistent rust at a couple of the lugs--I think there are probably pinholes in the brazing there, par for the course for English frames of that era--and some rust under the paint in a few areas. But I'm sure the frame itself is sound--when not built up it rings like a bell, and there's no visible rust inside any of the tubes.
In practice, though, I'll almost certainly keep the original paint for as long as I keep the bike, partly because I'm too cheap for a costly repaint and partly because it's kind of cool having something almost 50 years old that's almost all original. I'm a little bit unhappy with too much patina, but I'd probably be more unhappy with no patina, at least with this bike.

juvela

the things ones learns reading this forum!

who would have thought that a pie was the ideal tool for crank straightening?

good to read things seems to be under control jonwvara.

had to deal with the results of one of these rear ender collisions once many years ago. built two machines for a couple which they took on a car camping trip, carrying them on a rear rack. somewhere in oregon they were rear ended and the two machines became amalgamated. it was a sad sight. both frames were ruined and some of the components as well. was able to save some of the bits and built them a new set of bikes.

dddd might have liked to see one of the frames that got ruined. it was a new steyr with a purple lacquer finish over copper plating. have never seen another like it.