Originally Posted by
Sculptor7
The front fork on the Concord does not look bent. Whatever the picture showed is not evident when carefully viewing the fork from the side. Also, the wheel appears to be straight in relation to the frame and the fork. That is, the top of the wheel is centered under the headset in both bikes.
As to test-riding the bikes before hand while that is a good idea and in the future I will try to do so it is not always possible. For example, the Fuji (which was the only one that passed) was found at the dump in a condition that was not rideable. The Concord was purchased on a lousy day of snow and sleet while I was waiting for my wife to look through an estate sale. (Probably bought it out of boredom). All that having been said it certainly would be wiser in future to test ride bikes when they have gotten to the point of being tested before going to all the work of removing rust, overhauling bearings, etc. A lesson learned.
Straight frames/forks don't pull to the side...
Lesson learned -one we all will learn sooner or later.
IMHO, it's a good idea to just quickly tune up an old bike and give it a greasing and maybe install some new bearings if absolutely necessary just to ride it and see if it is straight. Test riding a frame is often the best/fastest way to tell if a bike has a problem if it can move on its own. Measuring a frame is time-consuming and fiddly and often will indicate "a problem" that actually doesn't effect real-world handling. There are tolerances and there are tolerances. It's totally dependent on the inherent stability of the frame geometry so that one frame might be off a bit and not bother it -it may have been off since the day it was manufactured and never was an issue. Other frames might be much more sensitive to the slightest bend or tweak. No way to know without being intimately familiar with that particular bike and having a really accurate frame-measuring tool and the knowhow to use it an know what the allowable deviation from true is.
Easiest is to first sight down the frame and look for obvious signs of crash or storage damage at point of sale (or dumpster find.) This is kind of a black art and some people have more of a knack for this. I'm an electrician and I can just "see" true and straight as I work with tubing all day long bending and fitting it to the installation. It's a learned thing.
Next easiest is to just put the bare minimum effort to get the bike rolling and pedaling so you can test it. If it rides fine at this point you are good to go. Sure, it's a couple of hours work sometimes to get an old beater running and you might need to throw a few spare parts from your scrap pile on them to get them going but it sure beats spending hours and hours and $$$ refurbishing and perhaps even refinishing something that isn't worth it or may need straightening which will damage the work you have already done on the finish.
If one does find an unrepairable frame at least you have a bunch of parts for your next build. That's why I like to stick with one type/brand of bike
