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.
The entire rear triangle (seat stays and chain stays) is bent to the drive side. The string passes 24.14mm from the seat post on the drive side and only 4.5mm from the non-drive side.
Brad
Originally Posted by
JohnDThompson
You've got nothing to lose in trying to cold-set it back into alignment. That's what I'd try first. If the tubes buckle or otherwise fail with cold-setting, then decide whether it's worthwhile to pursue tube replacement.
Originally Posted by
gugie
..."Oh, there's a big package in the hallway for you". The Zeus from Calgary had arrived! ...I chucked the bottom bracket on my vice to take a look:
Yep, not so good looking. Let's take a look at the seat stays against a straight edge:
What the heck, let's see what we can do...I already had a plan figgered out...
Better bring out the heavy artillery:
Nice job Gugie. That's what the Park FFS (Fork and Frame Straightening tool) was designed to do. I have one of those and it's a whole lot easier to use than a couple of 2 x 4's.
I've checked the alignment of every bike or frame that I own. If it's not too far out I can realign it at home, otherwise I take it to a frame builder friend's shop and use his layout table or pay him to do it for me. I let him do my forks and pay him because he has all of the jigs etc.
We sold some Zeus bikes in the 1970's. The top Zeus model from the early 70's was made with metric sized butted Reynolds 531 main tubes and Durifort forks and stays. That combination was also popular with many better quality French builders and manufactures from the 50's until the early 70's.
Durifort was low alloy seamed steel tubing with about 2/3rds the strength of Reynolds, Columbus and 4130. The main tubes were butted which increased the strength. The wall thicknesses of the Durifort tubes was about the same as heavy gage 531 and Columbus SP tubing.
We had to realign the rear triangles on a number of out of the box Zeus bikes. The rear stays were dead soft the first time they were moved. The toughness increased after each time the tubes were bent. By the time the frame was aligned the stuff was as tough to bend ad Reynolds or Columbus because of cold working.
BTW - Zeus bikes used metric threads and took a 22.0mm stem. The standard Zeus headsets were far superior to the Campy headsets of the day.
We sold a lot of bikes with Durifort frames. The bike that I put the most miles on was a 1975 Bertin C34 with an all Durifort frame like the one pictured. I never saw a frame failure with Durifort tubes.