To my eye, this fork looks bent near the crown race.

The fork seems safe to ride, and the head tube does not show any damage. I will take it to the local LBS tomorrow to get a second opinion. They might have a tool to do some subtle bending.

What are your thoughts on this fork? When I searched "bent fork", I found a lot of images of things that I wouldn't ride ... my dental insurance is good but not that good. This one is much more subtle. Am I being too much of a perfectionist on a 1985 Univega?

if i look at the steerer tube compared to the tines, it looks like it may be bent. if i look at the whole fork compared to the square, it looks like it might not be bent. try laying it out on some graph paper for a better comparison.

I'm going to say I'd like to see everything put together. Why ? Because I can't see what the clearances are for the brakes hardware to the rim, what the angle of the head tube is, what the rake of the fork does towards aligning the tire to the down tube for clearance. Even the pedal clearances are when the tire is being turned. This fork may be properly aligned when all of that goes together ? See what I mean ?

https://chuck.kichline.com/bikes/Univega/Univega.jpg
https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/...652b369ccf.jpg
https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1079/...436824cda9.jpg

every one of them seems to have a straighter drop after the bottom of the head tube and then the rake of the fork aligns & orients the wheel properly ?

Another couple of looks:

https://www.fiataccompli.com/bike/pho..._as_bought.jpg
https://oldtenspeedgallery.com/blog/w...-premio-01.jpg
https://www.fiataccompli.com/bike/pho..._as_bought.jpg

Almost looks as though the alignment is intended in the design ?

Giving you yet another look.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6...b51ebe53_b.jpg

That head tube has a pretty aggressive angle, the fork seems to drop immediately and in a more vertical plane and then the fork rake pushes the axle and wheel forward.

Thanks, Fuji86......
Here is the bike, together, from when I got it. Admittedly, photos from farther back would be more useful.





It winds up looking like some of the photos you poste, but to my eye, it still looks funny:

And a little bit like this one, too:

If you look right at the crown and fix your gaze at the distance between the crown and the square, and then look at upper part of the steerer tube and compare that to the square, it is closer. Similarly, if you look at the fork end of the square, and compare the distance to the fork, it is about the same as the steerer tube. The crown race area is definitely bent "outward" or simply, back. I'm not sure if this is a feature, however.

the fork may be bent a little but i don't see anything wrong with the top or down tube so maybe a new fork from nashbar is in order. or maybe you have one you can use. if so, try it on and see what you think. good luck.

Definitely bent. Be sure to check the top tube and down tube for any ripples, near the head tube. That will tell you if the impact that bent the fork went beyond the fork and bent the frame. You will usually see a little paint loss, and can feel a ripple on the underside of the tubes, if there is any damage.

Once installed, I use the straight edge test. Line a straight edge up, through the center bolt hole on the stem, down through the center of the fork crown, etc. If the fork is bent backwards, it will be pretty obvious.

In my case, the fork crown comes to a nice point, giving me a spot for lining up the level.

Bike on workstand (please ignore dirty bar tape):



Then using a four foot level as a straight edge:

bent from front impact, eh? the lower headset bearing may not roll around any more ,
tight on one part, and looser in another part.
Toss it...
check the frames tubes too, might have crash damaged that too..

I dunno- I have a Gran Turismo in the same size and year, and it almost looks like my fork is bent, too. It bugged me for a while, then I got over it. Now, seeing your bike, I think that may be just the way they are. Low trail is a good thing for touring bikes- makes front loading more stable.



I'd just ride it. If there's any crash damage, then it's mighty subtle. I can't find any cracks in the paint or ripples in the metal, or anything that looks like damage on my bike (believe me, I've gone over the crown area looking mighty closely), and it looks to have a similar fork bend to yours.

Thanks, guys, for the comments (and the photos).....

DT and TT are OK. Both sets of lugs match the lug at the top of the seat post. There is no evidence of paint cracking or chipping on the lugs.

Head LBS mechanic (the one I trust), agreed it was bent, and then he hemmed and hawed over it because it's soooo close. In the end, he said to take it to a shop with a fork jig. There is a framebuilder down on 28th Street. I will take the fork to him to see what he thinks. The LBS mechanic did say that when he worked at a shop in Boston, a whole load of Trek forks came in from the factory like that. They put them in the jig and bent them to spec with no ill effects to the forks.

I'll report back with what I find (but I already found a local framebuilder!)

Thanks,
Tim

After seeing cycle_maven's photo, I'm convinced too that it may look weird, but that is just the way they were designed and constructed. I can't reconcile that virtually every google image I could find and post a link to of a Univega has this same characteristic and that the only Univega images on line are of accident related fork bent damage. The post of a Schwinn is inconclusive, it's a Schwinn and not a Univega. cycle_maven's bike looks virtually brand new, your's even appears to be the same gran turismo model too. I can't imagine his having been in a crash. I was tempted to post about checking the frame for ripples and so on, but I figured you had already put the frame under that scrutiny.

His photo, I see the bottom race of the head tube is flatter than the angle the top race is. That would seem to require the fork to be oriented in that manner ?



Here's a link to Velospace, page down to the Univega's and look at some more ?

https://velospace.org/browse

Here's another that might convince you it might be just as intended/perfect ?

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...PgGC8clBEvukQg

It could also be exacerbated by the camera pincushion effect, and the head race is most definitely a scaling artifact. The OP's fork does look a tiny bit worse than mine.

It's possible my bike could have been in a slight front-end crash, too, before I bought it. It was a garage queen for 25 years- still had the original cosmolene on the chain- I could believe the original owner did a slight header into a curb as he was learning to ride, then lost interest and hung it up in the garage.

Then again maybe it was ridden for a few weeks/months on the road before being garage stored and at worst might've on rare occasion been ridden on and off the sidewalk at ramped driveway entrances, on uneven pavement around the road gutters and there is nothing more than the bend of an original design ? Without having the bike's original specs, things like this produce a slightly shorter wheelbase and that might've been intended to produce a unique ride for the Univega that has a more responsive steering effect. The different models of bikes, like cars, handle and feel different for ride. There's the different materials too for entry to expert level riders. Manufacturers make them for different pricepoints to consumers just the same. Components too are pricepoint items. Just me, but the more pristine the bike, shows the owner took better care of it and chances are weren't exposed to the crash that bends the fork. True that's an assumption, because a wreck or crash can occur at a moment's notice, regardless of how new the bike is. But I'm thinking the rim bends long before the fork does in a header into the curb.

I gotta admit, all the images of Univegas with slightly reverse angles at the crown is pretty compelling.

Need to have a seance with Ben Lawlee's ghost and ask him.

Easy way to tell, just grab a ruler and measure the front & rear of the head tube for length

One thing I find interesting, the manner in which the brakes are attached, a lot of road bikes have the bolt thru a hole in the crown of the fork. The Univega Gran Turismo has the mount points on the fork arms themselves. The angle of approach and the orientation to the points where the brake pads contact the wheel and rim, might make for a more sure alignment process. I've had brake pads rotate and not align on many bikes. That can be frustrating, maybe a design like this was intended to take the frustration out of that ? Sweat the detail in the fork & frame design rather than go thru it every time a new set of brake pads goes on ? Might even allow for a longer brake pad and thus improved & superior braking ? I hate it when the brake pads are closer to the tire either in the front or rear of the brake pad and we all know these things come in varying lengths too.

Still need to find Ben's ghost to ask about what the distance should be - not a lot of info out there about these bikes

The final verdict is that the fork was bent.

I was suspicious not only because of the way it looked when together but also because it had three mismatched spokes on the front wheel when I trued it. I have broken spokes many times on the back wheel of a road bike, but I have never broken a spoke on the front wheel. Furthermore, the reflector on the stem post was missing. The reflector bracket acted like a washer, compressing the headset. Without it, the whole thing was loose. I've seen this before, but I hadn't realized that it could have been related to fork damage.

The shop I took it to knew exactly what to do. I brought it in Friday night, they worked on it Saturday, and I picked it up Sunday. When I picked it up, I used the edge of the counter as a guide, and the fork looked straight. I reassembled it Monday night. The bearing line on the crown race had a noticeable angle the whole way around from being worn unevenly. (I should probably replace the headset, but I am too lazy.)

Together, the Univega looks like it has an oddly backward bending fork, so it's true to its brand, even with a straight steerer tube. Overall, it looks a lot better and feels a lot better.

Many thanks for your help.

BTW, these are the after pictures.

It may well have been bent. However, there is no particular angle at which the fork blades have to exit the crown. In general, a fork jig just holds the steerer a certain distance away from the dropouts. Most have a post that uses the fork blades to try to keep the crown parallel to the dropouts, that may or may not work depending on the uniformity of the fork blades. However, most production jigs have no way of dealing with mis-raked blades. I'm sure there are companies that have made forks that were slightly "bent" on purpose for parts commonality.

I should add that the fellow I dealt with looked at it, and said, "No problem." He saw the bend right away. When I pressed him and asked if he could fix it, he pointed to a used bike on the floor and said, "This one was worse."

Looks good, but replace that bearing crown race, you're in this deep, get it 100% right ?

Yeah, like I said, I gave up. I looked at it, and it had a definite angle to the wear where the chrome had been worn a little to the copper, but it wasn't in heinous shape. I'll get it the next time I take off the fork.

Thanks again........