Frame Advice

[kirk]

So I bought this frame off ebay for my project. It was advertised as straight and appeared straight in the pictures. However as I started to assemble it, I realized that the back end (subframe area) was not straight inline with the rest of the frame. It must have been dropped and bent to the right.

What are my options now? Can a machine shop straighten this frame up and if so what would I be looking at for cost on that? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[AHF]

Well if it is the subframe, you're a lucky man. I guess it would depend on the bend points whether or not it can be straightened. What kind of bike?

[kirk]

It's a 96 kat 600. I would guess that it's just bent back from where the subframe is welded to the main frame. it's just tweaked a inch or two in one direction like it was layed down hard.. the front shows no signs of serious trama or bendage.

[The CyberPoet]

Locate a product called Magnaflux (http://www.magnaflux.com/products/overview.stm) and check the frame over. This product will show you if there are other places that the frame is weak, cracked under the powdercoating or otherwise damaged in ways that are not visually noticable. If you find no other damage, you can have a welder cut and reweld the rear frame (or try it yourself, but I think a pro would be better), OR have a frame-straightener realign it. Afterwards, you will probably need to get it powdercoated again to cover the welds and damages to the powdercoating from straightening (be imaginative and consider picking a color that matches or contrasts the paint scheme well).

OR, stop and evaluate the cost of the whole project, then walk away and find another frame from a trusted source (SpecialK for example), or find a different bike that hasn't been trashed at some point ('96 models are pretty cheap around here).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet