Shipping woes. They ruined a 20s Elgin!

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Boardtrack fan

Boardtrack fan

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Just got a Elgin that I bought from a fellow RatRodder. The US postal service trashed the frame and fork. I may be able to save the fork But, I think the frame is a gonner. What makes me so mad is that I have had things ruined by all three of the big carriers and when you complain they have such a "i don't care" attitude. :x "Thats what insurance is for" I was told by UPS! The bike was shipped in what appears to be a newer box and everything was wrapped and zip tied together. What are they doing to cause so much damage?

If anyone has any ideas on how to repair this frame please let me know. I would really like to save her.

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HOLY MOLY!!! Man, that stinks.My heart goes out to you.I would assume that could be fixed.I would have lost it.Good luck.
 
Did the postal truck fall off a cliff on the way to your house? I could understand UPS or Fedex doing that with a forklift but the post office? That is just horrible, hopefully the frame can be salvaged. Whenever I see pics like this I think of the beginning of Ace Ventura when he poses as a UPS delivery guy, he completely destroys the package he's carrying. I guess that's the work ethic these guys go by now :roll:
 
That's terrible!!!!

Do you know anyone who welds? I'm guessing heat would be a safe way if someone was really careful. Maybe a muffler shop? Only problem with using a torch is that it will ruin the paint.
 
Sorry to hear about the bike, ..., how do they do that? I bought an outboard boat motor once and it arrived trashed, I swear i couldn't have done that much damage if I tried, looks like the same deal with that bike frame, you would have to bend that way out for it to kink that tube like that. Everybody go out in the garage and grab a spare frame and see how much force it takes to bend something that much, I can't believe noone would notice that, "gee, maybe I'm hung up on something?" should be the question they're asking. Bring it over some time and we can give it a shot of the old heat wrench, I bet we can straighten it out.
 
Looks like it needs to be treated just like a wrecked car. The frame and fork need to be locked down with something very solid,the bent parts pulled back into position, and then the divits filled in. If it kinks, then that section has to be cut out and resectioned. I'd fill everything in by brazing.
Due to the fact that there aren't many prewars left it's worth just about any amount of money to fix it, I hope it was well insured.
 
I would think about cutting the bent chainstays off and inserting a piece of metal that extends up into the remaining stubs. Then affix the metal and slide the chainstays back over them like a sleeve. It's probably not a bad idea to try to countersink rivets or some kind of rod by drilling through both sides of the chainstays and the reinforcing bars then file them down and try to hide by whatever your prefered method is.

I think if you just bend it back, the kinks will always be weak spots, anything you lay over them is going to eventually change shape or shrink and lose it's composure.

A good argument for, as a buyer, asking the seller that they require you to sign for your package, then you can open it up and refuse it right there if it's damaged, placing a shipping claim is no fun.
 
Thanks guys, for the tips on repairing it. When I picked it up at the post office it was quite obvious that it was damaged. They had already marked it damaged and taped up the giant hole in the side. I ask the guy what I should do if the bike is damaged and he says come back tomorrow and fill out a form. I go to the post office today with the shipping tag from the box, complete with the "damaged" sticker on it and the woman says "oh, you have to bring the item in with you, in the packaging". :x I can already see that they are going to make this as difficult as possible to claim.
 
My man, I feel your pain. Last year I bought a mint lemon peeler, that was shipped ups. Here's the rant I wrote about the service I received. http://www.epinions.com/review/bsrv-Off ... 1701251716
I never saw a dime from them, they managed to drag the process out so long the claim expired.
I managed to get the scoop from a former long term ups employee as to how stuff like that happens.

The problem with shipping bikes, regardless of the carrier, is the package size. Any oversized parcel that won't fit on their conveyor belts gets loaded on to a flat-bed transporter every time the parcel changes planes. So, at every stop, your bike gets tossed onto the hauler with stuff like exhaust systems, truck rims, 55 gallon drums, and so on.
Add in a rookie or 2 with a forklift, or a dude who doesn't want to be at work that day and doesn't care about what he's throwing around, mix in a little air turbulence,...ad shipping turns into a real game of russian roulette.
The last krate I had shipped came via usps. I gave the shipper precise instructions, and basically split the bike into 2 separate packages, one with the wheels, seat, pedals, and small parts, the 2nd was the frame and sissy bar.
The smaller boxes must have fit on the regular conveyor belt system, because the boxes arrived with no visible damage.
Rick
 
I think it can be repaired. I know I could do it, but you would have to ship it to me and thats the last thing you probably want to do right now.

How I would repair it... Bend the chainstays back as much as possible while working the kinks with a hammer/dolly to get it straightened out as much as possible, then cut the tube right in the middle of the kink, then using a little heat... work both ends so that they are round again and would accept a smaller tube inside the original tube as a re-inforcement, once the fit is satisfactory, remove the inner reinforcement tube and drill several holes in the original tube, put the inner reinforcement tube back in place and plug weld it in place, a little careful metal finishing and you wouldnt be able to see any sign of the repair, and the frame would be stronger than original for sure.

I would also definetly try claiming the damage first though... I know its a pain, but if you have the repair done by someone, Im sure they wont do it for free, and even if they did do it for free, consider it a "diminished value" payment.
 
Wow! Sorry to hear about your shipping problems.I am a letter carrier and i get some packages that i wonder what the heck happened to this, its plainly marked FRAGILE all over it. Looks like a forklift driver might have backed into the side of the box while loading other stuff. Hope it can be fixed. I have had 2 bikes shipped with fed ex and 1 with ups , everytime ive had bent rims or frames.. Shameful if everyone treated the shipment like it was their own this would happen less. So do unto others as youve had done to you so to speak. Great frame i hope youre able to get it fixed and keep up with the claim form even if its a pain.If enough people complain and file claim forms they might pay attention . Good luck
 
If its metal it can be fixed . Its not that hard . May get kinda pricy according to who you use. I'm always wondering that if we really are never up to the weight limit for the size of boxes we use if you could put some 1/4 plywood on the sides to protect a bike.
 
It can be fixed. I've done a few ussing the method Ratfink decribed.Just takes time a patience.
 
Well I could tell you first hand that people who unload the trucks for fedex / ups honestly dont care, when I worked for "them" We had to unload big trucks, maybe 4, 5..sometimes 6 a morning, then it would get separated down the line for the small box trucks you see around your neighborhood .. but anything was game guys use to take flat screen tvs and throw them agains the rollers, punch em, kick em -.- really no respect for anything on that truck because it didnt matter how fast we unloaded em, we would get our stones broken that it wasnt fast enough. Sorry hope you could work it out / fix it.
 
This is how much force is needed to bend a frame. This was done by a backhoe while the bicycle was stuck in a pile of other stuff. This worker was trying to get the scrap metal and not caring about keeping things in one piece. He was sorry once that he found out that it was a very old bicycle. I was able to salvage some parts from it.
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WoW! You have got to be kidding me... If someone was to say to me "thats what insurance is for" not only would I have lost it but I would say we all have medical insurance does that mean we want to become sick with a terminal illness to see how the insurance works out!!! This is a little late advise but when I ship out complete bikes or frames that are basically not replaceable.. I tell the person that is purchasing the bike that its gonna cost double the normal rate because of the shipping method I use which is basically a wood crate protecting the bike. Sorry and I feel your pain bro!
 
I worked part time loading trucks for UPS as a kid and you wouldn’t believe what it is like to load a truck. First they assign you about 3 trucks and then everything comes down a conveyer system. You have to run back and forth loading everything in a tight brick wall fashion and if you slow down everything gets piled up. So then you have a box with a set of headers falling on top of a digital camera so to speak. Every thing happens so fast and all the yelling to get the truck out in time you really don’t have time to care about the package itself. I’m 5'8 and I have stood on the big camcorder boxes (1989 had big camcorders) to stuff boxes up high into the truck so the wall will be tight and not fall. At the time you load the only thing you worry about is being fast enough to make the walls tight and get the truck out in time.

In short, that is what happened to your bike..
 

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