Bent frame recommendations?

[sethschmautz]

A few weeks ago on a ride my 6yo daughter had some sort of a chain stuck incident which lodged her chain so hard that my wife was unable to get it unstuck. I came back to help and by that time it was obvious that the hanger was bent.

Yesterday I pulled the hanger but realized the damage was more significant and the rear dropout appears to be bent also. If I replace the hanger only I can only imagine that the shifting will suck. To continue using the bike with any success I think I need to bend the dropout.

Frame is an aluminum Canondale Cujo 20+ from 4ish years ago. Should i:

Bend away (eyeball it)?
Take it to the LBS (was an REI purchase)?
Call Canondale?

Can't seem to find just a frame - especially in this current supply debacle - and there is a little brother who will be inheriting this in a year or two.

Thanks for the help!

Seth

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[toast2266]

That doesn't appear to be super bad. I'd use a long bolt with a couple of nuts to make a pry bar on the dropout and tweak it back until it looked reasonably straight.

Then I'd user a hanger alignment tool to get the actual hanger straight.

*that all comes with the caveat that cold forging aluminum isn't a great solution and you should definitely check carefully for cracks, both before and after the bending. But... it's a kid's bike. It's not getting sent by a 250lb dude. It'll be fine.

[rideit]

Yup, 10-12” Crescent wrench should fix that right up fairly easily.
But what he said about aluminum.

[XXX-er]

It doesnt look very bad but a good question to ask is does the frame really need to bent back, can you make it work by adj the hanger?

[Dee Hubbs]

Same as everyone has said, aluminum does not cold set (bend back) very well, it gets pretty brittle when bent.
1st step - Put on a new hanger and use a hanger alignment tool, if the hanger is properly aligned the hanger and derailleur wont know/care what angle the frame is at.
2nd step - see if the chain runs freely past the frame in the smallest cog, if there is no issues or interference, I wouldn't bend the frame at all.
3rd step - if you have chain rubbing issues, do a light bend of the frame.

This is the proper tool to adjust the dropouts, most "modern" shops wont have these tools:

Here is a good article on how to use them, and the theory of it.
https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair...pout-alignment

This tool/job can be replicated with 10mm (3/8) threaded rod/bolts and nuts.

[sethschmautz]

Thanks all!

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[rideit]

How did you get it sorted, if you have?