So let me get this straight. You hit a dog, which bent your fork, and then kept riding and crashed on high speed descent from shimmy? And you’re sure that 1) your fork was bent 2) the bike didn’t previously shimmy and 3) the lab was ok?

Another "Dog Bites Fork" story.....

The frame was originally ordered to fit. The shop was in Fresno, and had a "semi-custom" fitment guy who got the frame with the correct length seat tube, and a somewhat shorter reach stem, as well as a couple of other bits. I have an old (since age 14) shoulder injury, so reaching out or up is a problem unless it's not very much of a reach. I also can't stay in drops for more than a half a minute or so, so flat bars work for me. The v brakes I tried to use were Zttos. They came in a kit with the levers included. They swapped out fine, I just could never get them to work for more than about a 10 mile ride. I should have sprung for Shimanos or SRAMs, I guess, but the Zttos were rated pretty high. Maybe I'll try again, at some point. My wife's Jamis has Tektros. I don't have any problems out of them with adjustment at all.

Was riding in a group at a good clip, the Lab ran out onto the road to do a quick meet-and-greet, and I managed to meet this abrupt challenge "head on". My wheel hit the dog's shoulder, he and I went down. The fork was visibly bent backwards where the blades braze into the crown. I straightened it by hand as best I could, apparently not enough or evenly enough. Could not tell you if the steerer tube was also bent, it might have been, (and might that have restricted headset movement?). The bike did not previously shimmy.

Back then (late 70's) you couldn't just google Sheldon, Jobst, or John Allen to see what to do. All we had was graduation from O'Hardknocks School, then it was on to advanced study (majoring in Trial and Error) at Fork U. oh, sorry, just couldn't resist.

Afterwards the Labrador's owner called it back to its house, but you're right, I really don't know (to this day) if the poor dog was truly all right, i.e. had no internal injuries or broken bones. But at least he seemed to run OK, no shimmy.

TIL: Never bring a fork to a dogfight.

I'm not familliar with Ztto's, I almost always use Shimano or Tektro V-brakes with Jagwire cables. I am currently doing a V-brake swap on a BSO I'm going to sell using Artek V-brakes. I'd never heard of them, they were on my Scott Sportster when I got it. I replaced them on the Scott with Shimano Deore XT's. The BSO had stamped steel cantis with plastic covers to make them look like aluminum. They "worked" but not all that great and one of the straddles has some broken wires. I already had the Arteks and although they are somewhat cosmetically challenged they are clearly much better brakes so why not? I didn't have levers so I ordered an inexpensive set, they just came today.

This is true. And if so, the handling will seem pretty normal, compared to other bikes with similar rake on the fork. On this bike, I'm guessing that could be the case; it would have handled like a more modern, less-slack angled mountain bike.

You can post photos directly to BF without a host. Choose the option to upload from your 'device'.

Needles, I think you jinxed me LOL. My V-brake swap on the BSO was a failure, the mounting posts weren't strong enough for the increased leverage and no matter what I did the brakes flexed so much I couldn't get them set where the levers didn't come back against the bars. The whole bike wasn't worth the price of one brake booster much less the 2 it would have required and I didn't have any usable cantis "unworthy" enough so I stripped the bike of anything I might use and set it out on the curb along with the carcass of my first gravel bike build. May they rust in pieces......