I'll preface the story by saying I had a really bad headache that day...
So, I was having an issue with my Guerciotti Genius (that I have had since about 1997) where it would start to seriously shimmy at speed. Even though the lbs mechanic (and the owner of the shop) said "check the headset" I thought that I knew better. After all, it was a Chris King headset, and what could go wrong with that?
I had already been through a couple of sets of tires and tubes, changed my Brooks Swift Titanium for something else (forget what) and made sure that the Campy aero wheels were in true (they were).
So, it was time to break out the fork alignment tool that the lbs had and make sure that the blades were actually parallel.
They were.
BUT...I could still see that the rim was not centered within the fork.
Instead of stopping there, what did I do?
That's right!
I FILED DOWN ONE DROPOUT!
Hey, I had a headache!
It turned out that the wheel itself was dished off center.
In the meantime, I probably took about a millimeter off of one of the chromed Campy dropouts.
I've not ridden the bike since (and this was three years ago) as the only way to have the front wheel centered (after I trued the wheel correctly) is to have the skewer positioned so that it does not bottom out on one side and then lock it down tight! Obviously that can't be safe...
What I would like to do is have a framebuilder either replace the damaged Campy dropout with a NOS Campy dropout, or have both dropouts replaced with the Richard Sachs (or other high quality) dropouts.
I am looking for recommendations for a "go to" person to fix the fork.
The fork is also made of Columbus Genius Nivichrome.
And, of course, it turned out that the grease in the headset had turned chunky, and that was what was responsible for the speed wobbles!
Thanks in advance for your help, and remember not to do something irreversible when you have a headache!
Best Regards -
Rich
Richard Alan
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