[Jason]

imported post

Replace it Ted. Once it's bent it's weak and will never have the same strength again. The Wing is a heavy bike and the forks are under particular stress when braking a sall that weight gets pushed forward. Just spend the extra money and you won't have to worry about it.
Anyway, if you managed to catch the van driver, he will be paying.

 

[Jason]

imported post

This used to happen with Ford Orions, except that the seal wore on the crankshaft and made a groove. All out of warranty usually and at around 100k miles. The cure was to bond a thin sleeve over the crankshaft to provide a new surface for the seal. This just reinforces what Vic said about rubber wearing into steel. The chrome surface on forks I'd expect to hold out longer as it's usually very hard, but you can never tell for sure.

 

[Jason]

imported post

Another example of seals wearing out steel is the Skoda Fabia 1.2 car that is being made now. The seal that the front crankshaft pulley sits into wears a groove in the pulley. I fitted a new seal to my brothers Fabia yesterday and I had to push it a bit further into its location so it would miss the groove on the pulley that the old seal had worn. A quick phone call to the service department confirmed that this is common on 2000-2002 models. From 2003 the pulley is made of harder steel so doesn't wear out.