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Old 04-06-17 | 01:56 PM
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gugie
Bike Butcher of Portland
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From: Portland, OR

Bikes: It's complicated.

Originally Posted by Stevensb
Our local bike co-op had this Zeus frame. While it's too big for me, I despair that it will be scrapped without at least a good evaluation of the chances of repairing it.
Somewhere between maybe and probably, depending on what you're after. The real worry is the joints:

Bottom bracket: Although that's a big "whack", the movement at the bottom bracket isn't a whole lot.
Dropouts: I'm guessing this got hit in a side collision (really going out on a limb here!) and there was a wheel in the dropouts. This probably saved the dropouts from much damage.
Seat stay/dropout braze: Looks ok to me from the pics.
Brake bridge: here's where it gets tricky. If the goal is to straighten it out, you'd have to somehow use that point as the fulcrum to bend it back. I would try using a frame block, preferably a wood one to lessen edge stress, and grab it right above the bridge on the non-drive side, then use a lever (2x4 or frame alignment tool) and work just on that side. You can make your own frame blocks out of a block of hardwood and the right sized drill bit, then just cut it in half.

Once you get the non-drive side seat stay reasonably straight, you can center, space, and align the dropouts per the "usual" method.

If I sight down the drive side seat stay, it looks like it's a bit curved down near the dropout. I wouldn't try to mess with that. Grab a bunch of old steel frames and sight down the seat stays, you'd be amazed at how many aren't perfectly straight, but they're still rideable.

Of course, inspect all the joints before and after and look for evidence of cracking. Brazed steel joints are pretty tough. You only get cracks from tubes overheated during brazing, or brazes that didn't fully penetrate.

So, why not give it a go, what do you have to lose?
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Last edited by gugie; 04-07-17 at 09:45 AM.
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