They almost threw this away...

[drewellison]

It almost looks like you could get something up through the bottom bracket to exert some outward pressure, then push the sides of the downtube at the dent and pop the dent out. Dunno, maybe that'd make it weaker.
Drew

[weisan]

Mesi and Drew pal, appreciate the feedback and suggestion. I took it out again on my long ride with a couple of power climbs and fast descents, it performed flawlessly. The dent doesn't seem to have affected the integrity or the alignment of the frame. I am going to leave it as is as a reminder of how close it was to getting trashed but ended up as one of the most best-riding bikes I have come across.

[Ken Robb]

I don't think it's a good idea to re-bend stiff aluminum because, unlike steel, it will often crack. Hey, that ding just adds "character".

[oldpotatoe]

A co-op and this wee dent prevented them from building and selling? The Co-Op here sells all manner of bike stuff, most in way worse but functional, shape.
Surprised.

[dddd]

Unless the rider were particularly strong and/or heavy, I see nothing to worry about with that dent.

What a shame it would have been to discard such an unused paint job, and for sure most of today's aluminum framesets are reasonably ride-tuned for comfort and performance.

I bought a flashy-looking ex-rental aluminum road bike a few years back, it had a busted left Ergolever which I happened to already have laying around looking for a home, so I bought the bike in spite of a medium-sized dent in the toptube, and yes it was cheap!
It was a Marin Vicenza with 9s Veloce gruppo, and the ride and performance truly surprised me. The paint job looked like something that Colnago would dream up, so I had people asking me what it was, since I normally ride steel.