carbon frame damaged

Condormoment

I had my rear mech 'break off' spectacularly while in a bunch sprint yesterday. Actually it was the hanger which snapped but because I was 'giving it the beans' out of the saddle the mech smashed its way between the wheels spokes and the seatstays, trashing the spokes and the inside of the stay on the drive side. Yes, it was as noisy as it was expensive.

Anyway, leaving aside why the hanger snapped (and the components can be replaced) it's the frame which is causing me concern. My question is whether anyone else out there has had to have a carbon frame checked over and repaired?

There is a deepish 30x5mm chunk out of the stay that has been chewed out by the flying mech which means that a lot of filaments of carbon are shredded and visible, and a further 20mm crack at the end of the gash. Obviously it needs sorting out, but where do you go? the framemaker? a specialist composite company? Any suggestions of a good company to contact (prefererably in south UK)?

Any advice gratefully received.

proto

These people seem to have a good reputation

http://www.carbonology.com/carbonology- ... c-147.html

thetrotter

As have these:

http://www.applegate.co.uk/all-industry ... 063745.htm

They don't have a website but very helpful on the phone. Did an excellent repair to my wheel, quickly and cheaply.

andyrr

Or this lot : got a quote for a wheel repair (which I've yet to take them up on)

Hansell Composites Ltd
Unit 33
T. Dicken Ind Est
Station Road
Stokesley
TS9 7AE
ENGLAND

Tel: +44 (0)1642713129 Fax: +44 (0)1642713577

web: http://www.fibre-lyte.co.uk or http://www.carbon-fibre.com

Condormoment

Thanks guys, appreciated.

Chrissz

Any chance you could post some pics of the damage and report back if/when it gets fixed??

Hopefully it will never become an issue but if it does I (and probably others) would like to see/hear that it can be fixed


Good luck mate.

Condormoment

Sure, I'll be very happy to post some images of before and after but it will take at least a couple of weeks to get everything together, (most of the back end is still spread over a large part of West Sussex).

I have been thinking about why the hanger would have snapped in the way it did. In a way it did what it was meant to do, be the weak link between mech and frame. Better a busted but replaceable hanger than a busted dropout. Also, I crashed the bike on the drive side on the ice in the winter which may have weakened the alloy (thinking back the mech did need adjusting slightly afterwards), and to be honest when cleaning/checking the bike I never look at or check the hanger really as it is almost hidden by the mech. My mistake. Also, it snapped under quite a lot of force in the sprint, so the damage was worse than it might otherwise have been.

So, my advice is to check the hanger's integrity every now and then, (especially after a fall, even a light one). The consequences can be expensive as I have discovered. Hey ho.