I'm looking for some advice from those with more experience working with frames than I have. I have an aluminum, 29er mountain bike. I crashed it last year and bent the rear triangle out of alignment. Today I was attempting Sheldon Brown's method for bending the rear triangle back into alignment. Here's a link to his method, which involves using a 2x4 as a lever:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html
Now my frame is aluminum, not steel, but I needed only to move both dropouts right by about 1/2 cm, and I was willing to take the risk. Unfortunately, I misjudged the amount of force required, and my first bend resulted in a about a 2.5cm move to the right for the right side of the rear triangle. Then, of course, I had to bend that side about 2cm back to get it where it really needed to be.
While everything "looks" good now from the outside, I'm a bit worried about the excessive bending.
Should I toss the frame? I'm thinking that I will, and just chalk it up to "education".