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Following a bit of an off this afternoon, I am now the proud owner of an XT Servowave disc lever with a bent blade 🙁
Pending replacement (depending on cost) I'd like to try and straighten it out a bit. I realise its been weakened a bit already, but its rather awkward to use.
I guess its maybe out by 10mm at the end.
What suggestions please?
Leave as is, its alu and is highly unlikely to straighten out without breaking.
Cut the bent bit off, Sculpt a new knob with a file.
Knob.. s****
ring spanner will do it, but it may snap it
Hmm, as I suspected then. Will see what is available from UK Bikestore then....
£39.99 for just the lever blade? 😯 Bargain when i can get the whole lever for £36.99 from CRC. 😕
Anyway, some fiddling in the shed followed by gentle manipulation in the trusty B&D workmate and I now have a straight lever blade again. 😀
I straightened mine about 4 month ago been fine ever since
Same here, got mine back good-enough-straight 12 months ago with a breaker bar, a block of wood and a bit of gentle pressure.
To prevent it cracking(which it rarely does anyway), remove the lever blade, coat it in household soap, heat it with a blowlamp until the soap turns black, and straighten it straight away. This is called annealing, and helps prevent work-hardening in aluminium, one of the few things they taught me in metalwork that's useful afterwards.
stick a seat post over it and bend it back. worst case you buy a new blade
Don't bend it cold! It [i]will[/i] snap eventually, probably when you're sqeezing really hard...
+1 coatsey ^^^^^^
I re-bent my avid lever back with a seatpost, and very gently.
As jedi says - bending over a seatpost worked great when I did the same to my LX lever 2 years ago, still going strong.
Bent and straightened mine years ago, still OK.
coatesy
To prevent it cracking(which it rarely does anyway), remove the lever blade, coat it in household soap, heat it with a blowlamp until the soap turns black, and straighten it straight away.
Or, instead of using soap as a temperature indicator, you can heat the aluminium until you can "write" on it with a matchstick (the plain end) - ie the matchstick leaves a charcoal mark (obviously no use on black anodised aluminium).
You should quench in cold water immediately after heating, BTW.
Bit late now I've already done it! 😉
There's always next time.
Ride the same route backwards and see if you crash at the same place but in reverse and it will bend itself back
Worth thinking about for next time
Only possible on a fixie MTB though WCA? 😕
People ride other types?
Oi! Take your niches elsewere, this is a clean thread. Perverts.