PSA: I had to pick between a new derailleur hanger and a whole new frame for a bent bike

A customer brought in a vintage steel road bike from the 80s with a pretty bad rear dropout bend. The hanger was part of the frame, not a separate piece. The choice was to try and cold-set the frame back myself with a big alignment gauge, or tell them to look for a new frame. I went for the cold-set, knowing it was risky on old steel. It took me about two hours of very careful bending, checking the alignment after every tiny adjustment. In the end, I got it within 2mm, which is good enough for a friction shifter setup. The customer was happy to save the original frame. Has anyone else had success bending an old integrated hanger back, or is it always a lost cause?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena_fisher492mo ago

My old shop in Portland had a jig for that exact job. We saved a lot of classic frames that way, but it was always a tense process. You did good work getting it that close.

jenkins.wade2mo ago

Wait, you had a whole jig just for that? That's wild. I've only ever seen people try to muscle those frames straight with clamps and a lot of hope. @xena_fisher49, that must have been a serious operation. I can't even picture the setup but it sounds like it saved some real gems. Getting it close by hand feels like a win, but having a real tool for it is next level.

kai6021mo ago

...oh man, that reminds me of my buddy Marco who tried to bend back an old Schwinn frame in his garage with just a pipe wrench and a lot of swearing. He was so sure he had it, got the wheel in and everything. Then he took it for a test ride and the whole rear end felt like it was trying to crab walk down the street. He ended up just hanging the frame on his wall as art after that.