At the Bike Exchange a few weeks ago I took a bike home to work on. It was a mess as donated with its chainrings hung on a zip tie and looking very abandoned. It had a light frame and 3 bottle cages and it intrigued me.

I did some research and decided it was an 83/84 Specialized Expedition which is apparently a sought after bike.

It had a dent in the down tube about 4 inch behind the steer tube and had the fork replaced with one that didn't fit and the folks at the Exchange said it was a throw away.

The fact that the fork was replaced leads me to reason that the frame got the dent because something caused the fork , which was at the time perpendicular to the frame, to be bent into the frame with the fork crown hitting the frame tube.

As far as I can see there is no other damage. There is no visible bend in the top tube or down tube behind the steer tube or other damage to the frame.

I didn't want to give up on it and found a youtube video that showed how to work out dents with "frame blocks" which in the video were made from a billet of aluminum with a hole drilled through then sawed in half and then clamped on the frame tube with a vice.

I would like to try this as a way to salvage the frame.

If I can get most of the dent out this way will the frame be sufficiently strong?

As far as I can figure the down tube is mainly in tension rather than compression. Is this correct?

Is there anything else I can do to strengthen the frame?