Ethics on Post Crash Parts Usage

[93KgBike]

Clearly, personal ethics differ on the question of whether to allow parts to be used by others after you've crashed them.

But everyone seems to agree that full disclosure of the crash is absolutely necessary.

There's also another lesson here: when building a bike from used parts, or buying a used bike, you must disassemble it and rebuild it so that each part can be inspected.

I have straightened bent (steel) bars and used them without issue, and rebuilt brake calipers as well. Metal parts (with the exception of magnesium alloys) have never failed me catastrophically. So I wouldn't be conservative about reusing them. But I'd try to never use a part I hadn't thoroughly inspected.

Bike co-ops and used parts/bike sellers require us to employ caveat emptor. They can't know everything.