Repair to carbon dropout
Brought down in a race at Hillingdon a few weeks back, I wasn't too badly hurt, cuts and bruises, but my LOOK 586 didn't fare so well. A part of the carbon dropout that the gear hanger screws onto had broken off, leaving the sacrificial hanger undamaged, which is not is how it is supposed to work!
Spoke to the bike importers, Fisher Outdoor, who whilst very helpful and supportive were ultimately unable to do anything for me. Well out of warranty, LOOK in France wouldn't help and they don't offer any crash replacement deals.
Next was a carbon repair specialist, http://www.carboncyclerepairs.co.uk/index.html who, although very helpful, informed me that just not enough surface area and material to effect a bonded repair. We kicked potential solutions around and concluded a new metal gear hanger was the only possible effective repair.
So, having access to some serious heavy duty CNC milling machines I decided to make one. Had no data to work from, so had to reverse engineer from the old one, and improvise a bit. Spent an hour or two measuring and drawing, then got onto the mill. Took a while but ended up with Mk 1 which fitted and looked like it would work. Refined the design a bit and came up with Mk 2 which is now screwed to the frame. Looks good.
I'll build the bike up tomorrow night and hopefully will be riding it around at the weekend. If successful, frame will get stripped and off for a respray and hanger will go off for black anodising.
Hopefully photos can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/tim.osborne.357/photos?collection_token=100001439998096%3A2305272732%3A69&set=a.448977091826953.109570.100001439998096&type=3
Where there's a will, there's a way!!
Spoke to the bike importers, Fisher Outdoor, who whilst very helpful and supportive were ultimately unable to do anything for me. Well out of warranty, LOOK in France wouldn't help and they don't offer any crash replacement deals.
Next was a carbon repair specialist, http://www.carboncyclerepairs.co.uk/index.html who, although very helpful, informed me that just not enough surface area and material to effect a bonded repair. We kicked potential solutions around and concluded a new metal gear hanger was the only possible effective repair.
So, having access to some serious heavy duty CNC milling machines I decided to make one. Had no data to work from, so had to reverse engineer from the old one, and improvise a bit. Spent an hour or two measuring and drawing, then got onto the mill. Took a while but ended up with Mk 1 which fitted and looked like it would work. Refined the design a bit and came up with Mk 2 which is now screwed to the frame. Looks good.
I'll build the bike up tomorrow night and hopefully will be riding it around at the weekend. If successful, frame will get stripped and off for a respray and hanger will go off for black anodising.
Hopefully photos can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/tim.osborne.357/photos?collection_token=100001439998096%3A2305272732%3A69&set=a.448977091826953.109570.100001439998096&type=3
Where there's a will, there's a way!!
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Comments
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WHERE THERES A MILL THERES A WAY
I wonder if inesting in a 3d printer might help wth these problems0 -
should have asked there are loads of info on the bolt position for the mech.
nice job and TBH it looks like what i would have expected from the factory.
if you want need any dimensions PM me. not that i think you need them."Do not follow where the path may lead, Go instead where there is no path, and Leave a Trail."
Parktools :?:SheldonBrown0 -
Cool - don't forget to make up a couple of extras straight away - just in case.0
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Hats off to that, top repair. Very nice job indeed and great that you had access/ skills to use the CNC0
