Hey Ross, You need the curve as in the pic on our site - like you've said, bending the spring stops it from sitting correctly... It seems people are pushing too hard on the tensioner when setting it up, we've had a couple of people saying they have bent the springs... I'll add a note to our site now. Springs are available separately if you need them, but for now I'd try and bend them back straight, and then set the tensioner up without excess force. Hope that helps Ads Site updated: http://tartybikes.co.uk/product.php?id=10008