Carbon and clamping.

blablablacksheep

So a friend of mine has been telling our cycle club about how he clamped his carbon bike into his workstand(clamped the top tube) and after washing it, the frame was damaged.....we didnt believe him untill we saw it but it got me wondering..

Should you not at all clamp carbon?

another example for myself is i have a new roof rack "Thule ProRide 591(fantastic so far) but would i be able to clamp my nice new Carbon road bike into it ?

just wondering on your thoughts on this.

stueys

The advice is always to use the seat post on a work bench. I must admit I have the same question on the roof rack though, I've the same model....

schweiz

For the workstand, I made a holder out of two plastic coated hooks and a piece of wood from the DIY store. The clamp on the workstand clamps to the wood and the bike sits in the hooks. The BMC has a none-round section seat post so I can't swap it for an aluminium one. My solution is not any use for jobs like BB replacement but for cleaning and basic fettling (gears, brakes, chain) it's fine.

For the car rack (Thule EuroClassic G6 LED 929), and on all my bikes (carbon, Ti, Alu and Steel) I use pipe lagging and/or a folded microfibre cleaning cloth wrapped round the tube I'm clamping and tighten slowly until I feel the clamp jaws are just pressing the foam/cloth. Seems to have worked okay so far.

If you have the touch of a blacksmith then you will damage any frame. On the Thule racks, the ratchet straps holding the wheel are doing the work, the frame clamp is just holding the bike upright.

I also swap out my carbon deep section clinchers for standard aluminium wheels and put the carbon wheels in a wheel bag in the boot.

navrig

I looseley clamp the top tube so thus bike is effectively just hanging there. Then I hand tighten the clamp by rotating the handle until is is firm. That way I avoid over doing it and damaging any tubes.

blablablacksheep

good advice there with the pipe lagging didnt think of using that, have used cloth before but lagging a nice idea.

On workstand i think il use my alimunium seatpost or again some lagging around the toptube.

mattsaw

I always use the wifes best teatowel and wrap that around the top tube

ShutUpLegs

Thread is useless without pics

Wulz

I have the Edinburgh bikes revolution bike stand and use it whenever required with my Kuota.
The kuota Kebel top tube has a hex box section which i thought may cause issues with the clamp but its fine. the actual clamp is two v shaped sections which are both covered in thick soft rubber. The Kebel seat post is a tear drop shape section in carbon and again it works fine with the clamp. Im quite suprised that its easy to cause damage to a carbon frame this way but ill not be complacent when clamping mine from now on.

Even giving the top tube a squeeze, its hard to imagine it being possible to knacker it without going a bit mad.

Happy clamping!

Willie

jonomc4

I use pipe lagging and only clamp lightly - if I have to do a hard nut turn I take the bike off the stand.

So far no issues at all.

jonomc4

schweiz wrote:

For the workstand, I made a holder out of two plastic coated hooks and a piece of wood from the DIY store. The clamp on the workstand clamps to the wood and the bike sits in the hooks. The BMC has a none-round section seat post so I can't swap it for an aluminium one. My solution is not any use for jobs like BB replacement but for cleaning and basic fettling (gears, brakes, chain) it's fine.

I like this Idea - I think I will give it a go.

giant_man

it's just common sense surely ...

mikenetic

I've been told the best policy for carbon frames is to clamp them via the seatpost. If you have an aero post you're out of luck with that, but it works for me.

Given that the listed maximum clamping torque on my Spec Roubaix seatpost clamp is just over 6 Nm (carbon frame, carbon post) I can see how you could easily damage a tube with a gert big bike stand clamping handle.

schweiz

ShutUpLegs wrote:

Thread is useless without pics

here you go then...

nferrar

I've been meaning to rig something up like that but haven't gotten around to it... must buy some hooks at the weekend...

schweiz

just remember that the balance point will move if you take a wheel out!

TheEnglishman

Mattsaw wrote:

I always use the wifes best teatowel and wrap that around the top tube

Clean or used?

mattsaw

Clean of course, although it's decidedly on the used side by the time I've finished with it....

nwmlarge

re the roof rack issue try using some heli tape where the jaws clamp on
thats what i do

coopsman1

As said before, just clamp onto the seat post enough to stop the bike moving. If the seat post is aluminium then no drama, but use common sense.

That way you don't have to worry about faffing around with balance points etc if you do a make shift holder.

schweiz

Agreed, but my BMC has a non-round (it's actually an irregular hexagon) carbon seat post. I did think about shaping some wood to the profile of the seat post and using that but the hook solution was the cheap and easy.