I have just recieved the message below from my son. What do I tell him?
About bending aluminium? I have an Ali cast,I expect, gear change pivot arm off a Ducati and I want to fit it to the MV 175.. but I need to bend it a bit. Advice? Cold? Hot? Whats the process??
If it's a casting I would say the process is don't.
On cast aluminium, I'd expect it to break if you bent it much cold. You could try annealing it, but depending on the alloy it may not recover enough hardness to be useful in service.
Brian
If it is indeed cast, annealing and light hammer blows might do it. Not too far, cast likes to break 'cuz it is hard as cast (imagine that :). If it's
6061 or so, it'll bend like a pretzel after annealing (and would probably be quite safe to do as-is).I seem to recall high silicon alloys (such as used for casting) are also often hot forged, but don't hold me to that. Hot shortness is another possibility.....
Tim
Don't get too upset if I prove to be wrong, but I would expect it is more likely to be a forging. I have never broken a bike gear lever when falling off, but I have bent quite a few. They have all bent back, cold.
The only case I have come across of a brittle cast alloy breaking on a bike was where I saw a lad highside himself on an MZ 250. I ended up helping him carry the bike of the road and then gave him a lift home because both fork yokes had shattered :-(
Mark Rand RTFM
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required