https://plus.google.com/110903788122203327516/posts/QVSWv7p1QDz

Thanks to @georidersmtb for becoming my 2000th follower 🙂

I think it bent out of shape when I was going downhill. I was nonchalantly leaning back whilst cruising down the hill, and I think it was that point I noticed something was odd. I initially thought I was just imagining it and the handlebars had always been that far back. Then I noticed it felt squishy underneath, at which point I figured it was a flat. Once I reached the bottom I took a look at the tyres, but they seemed fine so I kept on going. Maybe 500 m further down the road I realised something was really not right and I stopped to inspect and that’s when I found something had gone horridly wrong 🙁
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My current plan, albeit not a very well planned one so far, is to bend it back by force. Then hammer the existing metal plate back into position. That might actually be good enough for the mean time, but it may also fail again horribly :/ So I think I need to stick a metal plate on it to reinforce it. In the absence of welding equipment, I’ve been thinking about cutting it out with a cheap hacksaw, then attaching it with bolts. But even basic things like drilling through the steel plate could be a major problem as although I have an electric drill, it probably won’t be good enough to cut through steel plate.

So it’s possible that I have no way to actually repair this thing myself. I’ll either need to find someone with necessary tools, or take it to a workshop and pay someone to fix it.