I flew to Austria with Easyjet last week with the MTB. Bike was packed in a decent padded bag. All looked OK at arrival but when I started to build up the bike later I found the front wheel wouldn’t turn – the rotor would catch the calliper. Took it to the local shop who confirmed the fork had been twisted by a few mm (rotors removed for flight). They said sometimes if left the fork might return to normal so left it overnight in the shop – next day still twisted so I had to hire a bike.

Anyway I get back to the UK 5 days later and start reassembling the bike to start measuring up for new fork and take photos for the claim against Easyjet only to find the wheel was turning again (almost in true) so I guess there is some memory in the fork and what they said in the shop was true.

My dilemma is now it is going to be quite hard to make a claim with no obvious damage to the fork. Has this happened to anybody before and is the fork likely to be compromised ? I guess forks take a great deal of pounding and are deflected to some extent in normal use so hopefully it is still useable if Easyjet refuse to cough up.

Maybe they threw it out of the plane onto the other side on the way back?

Err forks twist?

Right..

Did you ship it with the Maxle or a block in place? in order to prevent the lower legs being compressed together during transit? Mighta been squished a bit & is now de-squished. Good luck with a claim with Easy Jet.

Err forks twist?

Right..

Yes, yes they do.

I have never heard of something made of alluminium or magnesium straightening itself after having been bent . I would suspect some form of error when putting the bike back together .

I’m no Metallurgists but surely if something has caused the metal to exceed its elastic limit and bend then it’s not going to just magically return to its original shape.

You won’t be able to aim from easyjet, there will be a waiver on oversized or expensive stuff.

I’ve twisted some forks years ago, the never got better

Thanks all – these forks definitely twisted and it wasn’t user error putting it back together – I have mounted very many wheels and I suspect the bike shop I went to at the bottom of the Leogang DH track have seen a few damaged forks as well. I would have thought forks have some inherent elasticity(they can’t be completely rigid)and it was a small twist, just enough for the rotor to foul on the caliper so maybe they are ok. But I don’t think I will ever have full confidence in them now so looks like they will have to be retired to the spare box and a new investment made…

I twisted some rockshox forks years ago. New uppers and a full service and they where good to go again.

Take them to someone who can fix them. might not need much to get them working again.

I have to say I don’t quite understand what has happened here, but DO NOT use any forks that have been deformed in any way. The materials used are *extremely* quick to fatigue.