Greetings;

I had a bad encounter while leaving my Bianchi on the back of a truck. It was locked in place and on a mount at a relatives house. Next morning I saw a top tube ding approx 3/4" in length maybe 1/16" deep. After calming down and 54 miles of aggressive riding, I took it to a LBS in San Juan Capistrano(vac riding). The gent stated luckily it was a steel frame and that he has removed a ding of this nature by heavily greasing the top tube and using a C-clamp gently applying pressure more and more as he twisted the clamp. He said it reeks havoc on the paint job(which has lifted anyway due to the ding) and will destroy the decals. The 91' bike was/is immaculate. Anyone had dings repaired or do I leave it covered with a pump strap and live with it?

Thanks in advance...

Greetings;

I had a bad encounter while leaving my Bianchi on the back of a truck. It was locked in place and on a mount at a relatives house. Next morning I saw a top tube ding approx 3/4" in length maybe 1/16" deep. After calming down and 54 miles of aggressive riding, I took it to a LBS in San Juan Capistrano(vac riding). The gent stated luckily it was a steel frame and that he has removed a ding of this nature by heavily greasing the top tube and using a C-clamp gently applying pressure more and more as he twisted the clamp. He said it reeks havoc on the paint job(which has lifted anyway due to the ding) and will destroy the decals. The 91' bike was/is immaculate. Anyone had dings repaired or do I leave it covered with a pump strap and live with it?

Thanks in advance...

Live with it. That's one of the beauties of steel. A little ding isn't going to hurt anything. Cover it with the pump strap and only you will know it's there.

Greetings;

I had a bad encounter while leaving my Bianchi on the back of a truck. It was locked in place and on a mount at a relatives house. Next morning I saw a top tube ding approx 3/4" in length maybe 1/16" deep. After calming down and 54 miles of aggressive riding, I took it to a LBS in San Juan Capistrano(vac riding). The gent stated luckily it was a steel frame and that he has removed a ding of this nature by heavily greasing the top tube and using a C-clamp gently applying pressure more and more as he twisted the clamp. He said it reeks havoc on the paint job(which has lifted anyway due to the ding) and will destroy the decals. The 91' bike was/is immaculate. Anyone had dings repaired or do I leave it covered with a pump strap and live with it?

Thanks in advance...


I have "rolled"dents out of several of my old steel frames. Always with very good success.
The paint does get mashed a bit but the dent will be mostly gone. If the dent is sharpe and creased I would definitely get it done, if it is a shallow rounded dent I'd probably forget it and ride. Again if the guy knows what he is doing he can remove most of the dent.

don't worry about it send it off to a reputable frame builder and they will be able to bog the dent up. i stuffed a steel track frame quite nicely a couple of months ago and sent it to one of the local frame builders. he bogged it (similar to what they do with cars after crashing), sanded it back, resprayed it, put new stickers on it and she's as good as new.

Thanks for the replies... Yup, the dent is sharp and creased so rolling the dent would be the first thing I'd prolly consider attempting but I like the suggestion from Spida. How much does bogging a dent up run? If its about the same after having to buy a good clamp, ordering stickers and re-paint the section that was damaged. It might be close.

cheers

a couple of hundred in Aussie dollars it was. but the finish is reall good and it's only if you look really closely you can almost tell there was some work done. but no one but you will know.

If the dent just happens to be in the same place where your bar would strike the top tube, get hold of one of those top tube protectors (kashimax, from American Cyclery) and cover it with that.

Well now that just might be part of the fix indeed, roll the dent and cover the work. Thanks for the tip. I'll check one out at a LBS and take the bike to see if they have a size and color that works. At $35 or so seems a good fit. The test will be if the brake cable does not rub to much on the protector.

thanks

http://www.businesscycles.com/frameprotect.htm