The bent rear axle might be due to non-parallel dropout ends. Not sure about the crank axle...
Wyndham Pulman-Jones Girton, Cambridgeshire, UK
On 8/9/06 08:45, "Bianca Pratorius" <biankita@comcast.net> wrote:
> I have been working on bikes for a few decades now. Starting with the
> British 3 speeds that everyone had in the early 60's. I took apart many
> of my friends bikes and my own and my brother's. I never saw, or think
> I never saw a bent wheel axle nor a bent crank axle. After all, the
> difference in weight between a skinny teenager and a bulbous adult is
> only on order of 1 to 2 at worst. (130 lbs vs. 260 lbs give or take).
> The difference in power output is probably about the same for all
> participants in casual cycling too.
>
> This last year I found a bent rear axle and a bent crank axle on
> another bike. Neither bike looked abused and neither bike was ridden by
> anyone outside of the above parameters I would imagine. How can we
> explain a bent axle then? I could understand it on a mountain bike that
> is ridden so that the rider regularly takes on ten foot drops but both
> these bikes were lightweights that are ridden on road, not on lunar
> landscapes or by Evel Keneivel types.
>
> Garth Libre in Miami Fl.