Carbon frame blemish/crack

dhope
dhope Posts: 6,699
edited December 2010 in Workshop
A repost from the commuting forum... initial replies indicate it's not trivial :(
Any recommendations for carbon frame repair? It's a Boardman Team Carbon, around 6 months old. Live in SE London, incase there's anywhere at all local people know of.


I looked the frame toady and noticed some cracked paint. Hoping it's just that but here are the pics. Should I be worried?

dsc0002yx.th.jpg

dsc0005z0.th.jpg

dsc0006ha.th.jpg
Rose Xeon CW Disc
CAAD12 Disc
Condor Tempo

Comments

  • freddiegrubb
    freddiegrubb Posts: 448
    :oops: Looks serious to me, I'd say expert assessment with a large magnifying glass needed. Why should paint/lacquer crack in such a uniform way? & at that location, could be nasty.Best of luck.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Looks suspiciously like it's been whacked or bent. What's the inside of the chainstay like??

    I'd be wanting a new frame from the insurers if it was mine.
  • dhope
    dhope Posts: 6,699
    edited December 2010
    keef66 wrote:
    Looks suspiciously like it's been whacked or bent. What's the inside of the chainstay like??

    I'd be wanting a new frame from the insurers if it was mine.

    Inside looks okay. The crack runs top to bottom on the outside and a little over the top but the inside is smooth. Had an "it's all fine" report from the bike shop.
    Rose Xeon CW Disc
    CAAD12 Disc
    Condor Tempo
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    It's possible that it's flexed enough to crack the paint / lacquer, but the cf is OK.

    If you already have the insurance payout and want to keep the cash for other things, you could try patching it up with clear nail varnish and keep an eye on it.

    Failing that, the cf can probably be repaired if you don't mind a less than cosmetically perfect finish.
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    That degree of cracking suggests something serious IMO - this crack also coincides with the BB / chainstay junction so it's conceivable that a sideways knock to the rear wheel has upset the rear triangle. It should be repairable though - try one of the carbon repair specialists
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • racingcondor
    racingcondor Posts: 1,434
    I wouldn't be surprised to find out that under the top layer of carbon is a carbon tube plugging into an alu bottom bracket. If that's the case then I suspect that the crash damaged that joint and the top layer concealed the damage.

    There are a couple of carbon specialists in the UK http://www.fibre-lyte.co.uk/ off the top of my head (there's another in Herts) but I suspect that the cost of repair will be as much as the value of the frame on a Boardman. Worth asking though.
  • giant_man
    giant_man Posts: 6,878
    dhope wrote:
    keef66 wrote:
    Looks suspiciously like it's been whacked or bent. What's the inside of the chainstay like??

    I'd be wanting a new frame from the insurers if it was mine.

    Inside looks okay. The crack runs top to bottom on the outside and a little over the top but the inside is smooth.
    Bike and me landed on the pavement so quite possible that it took a knock from the concrete

    After the initial "it's all fine" report from the bike shop I made sure they wrote that because it was carbon they couldn't be absolutely certain that there was no hidden damage. The driver's insurers have given enough to replace if required.
    There's no way I would think of riding that frame again, if you have the money from insurance to replace, that's exactly what I'd do.
  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 17,496
    giant mancp wrote:
    There's no way I would think of riding that frame again, if you have the money from insurance to replace, that's exactly what I'd do.

    ^^^ this
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • Mr Dog
    Mr Dog Posts: 643
    I'm no expert but its in a bad place (you don't need me to tell you that). You need to get it professionaly assessed to have confidence in you bike again. Best of luck. 8)
    Why tidy the house when you can clean your bike?
  • Rodrego Hernandez
    Rodrego Hernandez Posts: 1,436
    http://www.carbonrepair.com/

    See this thread on weight weenies for an example:
    http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum ... 14&t=79965
  • KINGGARY
    KINGGARY Posts: 89
    Looks like delamination of the carbon fibre to me, have seen this several times on impact damaged high end cars.
    Truth is there's little way to tell without removng the paint/laquer layer, i certainly wouldn't continue to use it with deformation in a load bearing area.
    If you have the money i would have it replaced, even when repaired there may be other areas of damage on the frame caused by this incident that aren't visual.
  • Cleat Eastwood
    Cleat Eastwood Posts: 7,508
    Rodrego Hernandez wrote:
    http://www.carbonrepair.com/

    See this thread on weight weenies for an example:
    http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum ... 14&t=79965

    You can email a photo to carbonrepair and they'll give you an opinion and an estimate for repair
    The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
    momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.

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