Hello there guys, this sunday a friend of mine landed on my giraffe’s (Qu-Ax Giraffe) frame and bent it unfortunetaly. What i’m curious about is that is it possible to straighten it without damaging it, or do i need a new frame ?
The thing is i bought it from Austria and i live in Turkey, which makes it difficult for me to send it to the store (or Qu-Ax’s itself)
It’s been only 3 weeks and i’m really frustrated about it, sorry for the bad quality of the photos but, it’ll give you an opinion about it.
“Losing without much” Exactly my point, i’m not going to use “Brute Force” on as the frame would only get worse. Is there any tools or any other stuff that could help me such as heating it etc ?
I’m with saskatchewanian.
He did say ‘gently’ and his method is spot on IMHO. The lower, double tube, part of the frame will be stiffer so no worries there. Heat? Noooooooo, Wrecked chrome and local distortion of the tube. If you don’t like the sound of wooden blocks use sandbags which will conform to the tubes and help to stop it rolling over.
To take it to the next level, get it reinforced. Or do a manual bend-back and wait until it happens again. Those frames aren’t particularly strong, and that’s where giraffe frames usually bend or fail.
So if it does break or get worse, have a bike shop or welder repair it with some reinforcement. Gussets (front, back and both sides) or just thicker tubing from the bottom bracket upward, at least 20 cm or so.
Thanks for the replies, i’m able to take it to a bicycle store tomorrow and i’ll see what i can do. (I hope they could fix it, a new frame costs 150 euros)
And as for wrecking the chrome plating, i’ve never liked it and was considering painting it to black since the day i got it.
That frame is mild steel, and you could bend it such a small amount, and straighten it cold 20 times or more before it would crack. Heat is just an added complication in your case.
I would suggest buying a bottle jack, 10-15 $ at Sears or an auto parts store. Then all you need is a beam to strap the uni to, and you can use the jack to precisely bend the frame. Sask’s idea would work, but requires more skill, with a jack, you can get it just right.
John’s idea about welding gussets has some merit, but I would wait and see if you can’t just learn to ride it without bending it again. In any event, it can be straightened many times from such a small bend without worry of making it weaker.
Guys at the bike store straightened it and told me that the frame tube was so thin that it’s like a dough. In order to prevent bendings, he also suggested adding gussets but chrome plating will burn in that process.
If only i knew buying a giraffe was going to cause so many problems…
Wrecked chrome and local distortion of the tube. If you don’t like the sound of wooden blocks use sandbags which will conform to the tubes and help to stop it rolling over.