Filed down dropouts too much

JermaineW93

Just Joined
Oct 17, 2019
3
0
Hi all,

I have made a very boneheaded mistake and shaved my dropouts too much for my hub motor (front). These were the first set of forks where the hub just really wouldn’t fit initially! Is there anything that I can do so that these forks will still be usable with the hub motor? Or is the damage to those forks irreversible and those forks unusable now?

Whilst riding today the axel turned, twisting the cabling plenty in the process. I was using a torque arm, although maybe not a great one! I am already researching how to re-wire the hub motor, but I’m just wondering if I need completely new forks or if I can do something which makes them usable.

Thanks for your time, any advice at all will be appreciated.

(P.s. I accidentally posted this twice and don’t know how to delete one of the posts! Apologies!)
 
Last edited:

Ocsid

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 2, 2017
441
265
81
Hampshire
You might possibly take up the clearance with a "shim" of tin plate, cut from say a coffee tin can?
For the torque arm to allow the cable to wind up that must have failed.
 

Andy-Mat

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 26, 2018
2,214
561
77
Hi all,

I have made a very boneheaded mistake and shaved my dropouts too much for my hub motor (front). These were the first set of forks where the hub just really wouldn’t fit initially! Is there anything that I can do so that these forks will still be usable with the hub motor? Or is the damage to those forks irreversible and those forks unusable now?

Whilst riding today the axel turned, twisting the cabling plenty in the process. I was using a torque arm, although maybe not a great one! I am already researching how to re-wire the hub motor, but I’m just wondering if I need completely new forks or if I can do something which makes them usable.

Thanks for your time, any advice at all will be appreciated.

(P.s. I accidentally posted this twice and don’t know how to delete one of the posts! Apologies!)
Easily done.
My best offer, assuming the forks are steel, is to remove the forks (or remove all electronics from bike and take the rest of the bike) and take them/it to a welder, and get him to simply build up the areas that you have damaged, with carefully applied weld.
Then file it carefully back into a proper shape!
Protect the metal from rusting with (hard) paint when finished.
Regards
Andy