Originally Posted by
cudak888
Not always. Fewer than 50% of the frames that I've run across with front end damage have bent steerer tubes. The steerer tubes and/or fork blades held up; leaving the frame to absorb the impact.
I'm not suggesting it's impossible for the steerer to be bent on this Paramount, but it isn't engraved in stone either.
-Kurt
OK. If somewhat fewer than 50% of the frames with crash damage have damaged fork/steerer/head tubes, I suppose this means that the fork assembly, which is designed to absorb front-end shocks, is good at doing so, and the top/downtube part of the frame will give out (structurally) before the fork assembly when the latter is subjected to excessive shock in a front-end crash. I shouldn't have said "
almost certainly," but I think we agree the fork assembly should be checked out for damage when you see this kind of frame tube buckling.