UKH

So I managed to cycle across the Iceland highlands without incident but then crashed head on and fully loaded into a bit of street furniture outside Reykjavik. Down tube is slightly indented on the tube’s underside and next to the join with the head tube and there’s a small paint blister on top and underside of the top tube, again adjacent to the head tube. All the damage is consistent with a squished front end after an impact although the geometry, specifically fork, looks ok.The bike is a condor Reynolds 531 steel with non-fancy lugs, 26” wheels and no suspension which was bespoke-built 23 years ago.
It’s rideable but is it fixable? Would a frame builder be able to swap out the top and down tubes or am I looking at a new frame? Any recommendations or estimate of cost for the repair? If I shrug and pedal on, will I be forever worrying the whole front end will collapse somewhere remote years hence? Thanks

I crashed a couple of bikes on a roof rack into a height restriction barrier (yes, very stupid I know...) a couple of years ago.

Both bikes aluminium with carbon fork. One was destroyed. The other ended up with very little damage except a considerable dent in the underside of the downtube. It's since been ridden for at least another 1000 miles. I did some relatively small drops on it and bounced up and down on it as much as I could to see if it would collapse, but it didn't. It's just used for road and quite easy gravel, so the small drops tested it to more than I think it'll ever be loaded with for real.

I had a stainless steel Jaegher repaired.  The bike is TIG welded rather than brazed/lugged.  It survived the front end collision, but flew up into the air and landed on the top of the rear wheel (this is supposition because I was getting up close and personal with the tarmac at the time).  As a result, one seat stay broke away from the seat tube and the other got a kink in it.

The manufacturer, Jaegher, replaced them both (it was custom-made by them in the first place).  They inspected the fork, stripped all the paint off the frame, checked it all, repaired and repainted it (or rather the third-party painter repainted it).  Total bill (of which paint was a fair chunk) was Euro 1,000.  Shipping to Belgium was £75 by DHL.  Picked it back up in person (20km from the start of the Tour of Flanders).

Condor frames are made in Italy I believe, but a regular steel frame should be repairable by many, if they have suitable tubes.

I had a Reynolds 531 tubed tourer with a notable dent on the underside of the downtube which never caused any issues but it was about 5cm from the head tube.....if the lugs are not damaged I'd be hoping it would be fine if it was me but I've only ever toured on roads not anything rougher....

I think you could have it repaired but not sure on costs..,..may be cheaper to pick up a new frame or a good used one....

It'd certainly be fixable, the benefit of steel being its easy to work with on the grand scheme of bike frame materials. I'd be tempted to say it will be ok if the geometry is about right, more likely the frame flexed a lot and popped some paint off, and is slightly bent/buckled but not cracked and therefore unlikely to explode at random. I've seen a friend hit a huge tree head on (531 frame MTB), and ended up with his forks basically vertical, the bike still made it back to the car after another hour or two riding. 

In the interim, you could scrape off the blistered paint and see if there are any cracks visible below it, and if you're still going to be out for a while cover the bare metal back up with some clear nail varnish or similar. 

Vernon Barker has a pricelist, unsure how in date it is though! Looks like somewhere around £500 if you add up the new head tube, down tube and top tube prices. Certainly cheaper than a new frame, but not pocket change either! You'd probably be looking at another £100ish to have it stripped and repainted/powercoated after the repair as well.

https://www.vernonbarkercycles.co.uk/prices_frames.html

Many years ago I snapped a previously bent 531 chainstay and got it welded back up by Common Wheel in Glasgow. Its quite obvious where its been repaired but has survived a further 5000 miles of riding. Cost about £30.

https://uncommonwheel.weebly.com/