Advice for potentially damaged frame

[DCilliams]

I had a bike frame shipped from Belgium, and I'm concerned a perfectly preventable tragedy may have happened. As you can see in the pics the packing job was pretty lazy to put it nicely.

I've not dealt with potentially bent or out of alignment issues before. If the frame is jacked up, do you guys have any recommendations for who to contact to get it hopefully fixed? I live in Washington, DC.

Thanks!

[stien]

Throw a wheel on it and see how bad it is.

[DCilliams]

Throw a wheel on it and see how bad it is.

Definitely.

[-dustin]

take pictures of the packing job.

[AngryScientist]

you may be surprised at how resilient the rear end of a steel frame is. put a wheel in you know has good dish and is very true and see how it runs. it may be worth bringing to any bike shop that has a RD hanger alignment tool to make sure it's not bent, as a starting point.

[DCilliams]

Thank you, guys!

[Black Dog]

Not hard to check the dropouts for alignment and straighten them out. Find a good shop or local builder and you should be ok.

[TBLS]

From experience plenty of pics and keep the box if you think a claim may be needed.

[icepick_trotsky]

If there are alignment issues, they can typically be repaired by any competent shop or framebuilder. Dents would be a bigger concern.

[rccardr]

FIRST take a lot of pictures of the box and then from the top of the box looking inside, then each step of the upacking. Lots of pictures. You will have to collect any damages from the seller if the packing job was poor, cuz the shipping company will fall back on the old inadequate packing disclaimer, especially since you have publicly posted that it was poorly packed.

Like others, I think tou may be fine, paint issues notwithstanding. From where you are in DC, I would suggest BikeRackDC to check alignment and the hanger since they do some pretty complex builds and seem to have their stuff together.

BTW, did you ever pick up those rims from my daughter?

[Peter P.]

You've received a lot of good advice.

So don't forget to tell us whether the frame survived!

[ultraman6970]

So, is the bike off or is ok??

If you are in DC the 1st stop IMO is veloclasique... if you want to take that to a builder with a table and that is good I would take the frame to aaron dykstra at 611 bicycle co in roanoke. This kid is super cool.

There is a guy in richmond that does some repairs and painting that has a table but I do not remember his name sorry :(

Then you end up at baltimore and philly area.

[BobO]

When I get a delivery with a badly damaged box, I refuse the delivery and immediately fill out the damaged package paperwork with the delivery person there. Taking delivery is many times considered a de facto acceptance of the condition the package arrived in. By refusing the delivery you put the onus back on the shipper and shipping company. Oh, and document everything in pictures.