Upper steering mount damage = over structure rear tube frame replacement?

[RyanBiggs]

Hey guys,

Forum noobie here hoping for some tech advice. I had a trailer jackknife misadventure last spring that resulted in my 2021 Switchback Assault getting tossed hard onto its handlebars. The steering post was bent and upper steering bushing broken. After removing those, I discovered that the mount casting at the top of the rear tube frame had been mangled by the bent post and the mount webbing actually torn through as can be seen in the attached photos. The two mounting holes for the bushing aren't even quite in the same plane anymore.

I suspect a lot of guys would just bolt on a new bushing and ignore it, or maybe pound it back a little flatter and bolt a chunk of bar stock on the back to stiffen the mess. But seems like the professional fix is to tear everything down and install a new copy of the rear tube frame assembly that includes the casting.

If there are any pro techs lurking around, it would be great to confirm whether that's the right idea or if in reality a pro shop would just band-aid the situation and not worry about it too much. I'd rather do things right the first time and in fact already went and bought a new frame. But looking at everything that has to come off, I figured I'd get a final second opinion before I commit to ripping into it.

 

[850Switchback]

I think you already answered your own question, no professional shop in their right mind would let that back out due to liability. If someone lost steering ability and caused an accident because of that failing down the line, they would be done if it got traced back to them knowingly ignoring the issue. They would also own any non factory modifications trying to "fix" the issue.
Not to mention your steering post is likely going to be crooked with those mounting holes being tweaked.

 

[RyanBiggs]

Thanks for the input, I may have just needed the moral support to comfort me while I'm drilling out rivets haha. Yeah seems pretty obvious eh? Just making sure I'm not missing some other "approved" fix and working too hard. Living around a bunch of bush-fix happy Alaskans has a way of making you feel silly for wanting to take the time to do something correctly.

 

[850Switchback]

Yeah that doesn't look like a fun repair, but that one's still way too new to not be doing it right.
Isn't there an age limit to equipment before you can be applying bush fixes? lmao

 

[RyanBiggs]

Haha it seems not in Alaska, which is the #1 reason I'm doing this job myself. I've seen way too much sloppy work by professionals here. To be fair there are some good techs out here but more than a few who have a bush attitude toward everything.

I'm usually more of a perfectionist than professional techs have the time for anyway, which is why I have to take a step back now and then to be sure I'm not going overboard. This mess is sure to be a lot of additional R&R work but maybe not too bad in the end if there aren't any big surprises.