Bent Frame Mystery
 

A friend of mine wrecked his Motobecane Grand Touring a few years ago--was speeding down a hill on a dirt road, hit some washboard in a curve and lost it. He broke a number of fairly important bones but was okay in a few months.
Not surprisingly, he also bent his frame--the usual damage in such cases, where the head tube is wrenched downward. It's not a huge bend but is very evident when you look at the frame--not sure how well it will show up in the pictures below. What is surprising to me is that he somehow did all that without damaging the fork or the front wheel in any way. I have the original wheelset here, which I'm installing on another frame that I'm building up for him. The front wheel is still perfectly round and true. I've looked it over very closely, every spoke and nipple, and there's no sign of any damage. The fork doesn't exist anymore--I used it as a donor to replace the damaged steerer on my Gitane--but it was also in perfect shape, not even slightly bent.
I've tried to envision how the damage could have been limited to the frame, but I can't do it. Has anyone around here ever seen this kind of thing before?

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=342959http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=342960

I've seen the fork and front wheel survive when the frame didn't before.

Yes, it's not uncommon for the fork to be stronger than the frame behind it.

BTW, that looks like a pretty minor bend in the frame. It's probably quite rideable as is.