Originally Posted by fuji86

By bending the fork, you probably bent one of the forks out of alignment ? Easiest way I know to check it, install the fork like you have, take the wheel out and line up the top of the fork to be a perfect 90* orientation with the rest of the frame longitudinally (probably like your pic shows you've already done ?) on a tile floor. Make sure you have the fork dropouts where 2 tiles meet. If one dropout is more forward than the other, the bending you did has misaligned your fork & steering. And you'll know it when you put the wheel in it and ride it. Your bike is turning either left or right on it's own.

If the steering is out of alignment. This initially & will prematurely wear your front tire more, as you'll wind up correcting the direction of the bike as you ride it. It may eventually & prematurely wear your bearings out in the front wheel too. This is the equivalent of a car that has misaligned steering for a bike. Same issues hold with a bent frame too. To go perfectly straight the frame (north to south) needs to be in alignment from the steerer tube to the seatpost tube. Behind the seat tube, that also needs to be in perfect alignment, otherwise the bike frame will try to turn itself on it's own too. The steering tube is a 90* (east to west) orientation with the rest of the frame to go perfectly in a straight line.

You can also tell just by walking the bike down a flat surfaced hallway or sidewalk. Align the top of the steering fork in the 90* orientation with the frame and using you hand on the seat only, start to walk the bike forward and down the middle patch of both tires. If it goes in a straight line, everything is right, if it starts to turn or veer to either the left or right, the fork is bent, seeing how that's what you bent and assuming the rest of the frame was welded together in alignment.