I have been trying to sell a 2003 BMW K1200RS for Dale the Builder for a couple of seasons now. He decided to have me take care of a couple of issues with it, hoping to improve the chances of selling it.

One was the rear brake lever. It was severely bent and appeared to be cracked. A new one is well North of $200 (thanks, BMW) but ya gotta do, etc.

I had the bright idea to have it welded. I assumed (and you know where this is going) it was aluminum and I don't have the tools or the talent to weld aluminum so I was going to take it to a local guy that's pretty handy with a TIG torch.

Figured I'd do him a favor and wire brush the area to clean it up to make life easier for him. A few seconds on the wire brush followed by a little touch-up on the belt sander revealed two things:

1) It wasn't cracked, it was just the powder coat flaking off, and
B) It isn't aluminum it's mild steel.

Given that, I popped it in the vise and gently worked it back straight, holding my breath the whole time waiting for that SNAP! of it breaking but I managed to successfully straighten it out.

Less than an hour of my time vs. $235-ish? Don't take a Rocket Surgeon to do that math...

Nice work
The K12RS was the first BMW I really liked.
No bikes in the cards for me, for a while, though.

In the future when you are trying to straighten a steel part Heat can be a real friend. Because many Steel grades do have a nasty habit of Work Hardening and then cracking. Apply a bit of heat to get the work area a dull red and all those concerns about cracking go away.

Sometimes the good guys win.

Nice job, PHPaul!!!