Deep chip to Carbon Frame , help please...

Michelle L

Hi everyone

I am new here to the forum , I bought a Boardman carbon road bike for £600 pound yesterday.
I did give it a good check over but obviously not good enough..
When I was cleaning it I noticed on the frame where the back wheel is a deep chip , I think its called a stay , not sure.
Anyway its taken all the lacquer off and I can see 2 or 3 ml of carbon
I was so happy to get it home and now I am worried the frame is knackered.
I have had carbon frames before with chips on but not where I can see the carbon as its so deep..

I did read nail polish is good but I have ordered a carbon repair kit just for the glue as I thought it would be better to use , the stuff you mix..

I just wanted to know if my new bike is knackered or am I just worrying to much..
my new bike is second hand by the way but after spending 600 on it ,, its new to me..

Any advice and I would be grateful please.
I have tried to post a pic some hopefully it will show. Thanks

ugo.santalucia

I suspect for 600 pounds it is not carbon but aluminium alloy.

I suggest to leave it alone and forget about it

Michelle L

I have the receipt , it cost new £1299 , I can assure you it is carbon..
It cost me second hand £600.
The picture does not look so bad ,, in day light it looks worse

sungod

hard to tell from the photo, perhaps caused by something getting caught in the spokes?

but it doesn't look major, even worst case where fibres have been damaged it can be repaired by a cf specialist and it'll be fine - not ideal as you spent 600 quid already, but a repair shouldn't be too costly

ideally you want somewhere close enough to visit and avoid having to pack/ship the frame, try contacting...

http://www.carbonology.com/carbonology-repair-service-c-147.html
http://www.carbonbikerepair.co.uk/
http://www.carboncyclerepairs.co.uk/racing-bike-repairs_2.html
http://carbonfibrerepair.com/
http://londoncarbonrepairs.co.uk/

keef66

That looks tiny to me; I'd just put a drop of clear lacquer on it and ride the thing

Monty Dog

Sell it and buy something made from steel - you're clearly too nervous a buyer to own anything made from carbon ;-)

It'll be fine...

dwanes

It really doesn't look much, I would forget about it and wouldn't bother doing anything with it. just ride.

Michelle L

Morning Guys

Thank you kindly for your advice , Sungod I will look for the closest repair shop to me with the links you put up ,, I am in Hertfordshire ,, sunny Hertfordshire..

The picture is not very good I have to say , the chip is on the outside so I am pretty sure its not from anything coming off the spokes..
I have had a few carbon frames with some deep chips in and its never bothered me , but I have never had one where I can see the carbon and I have just bought the bike so you can see why I would be worried..

I think for now I will wait till my epoxy turns up and put some of that on to protect the carbon , then I may just take my bike into a repair carbon shop just to get the ok..
But yes I will be riding my bike in the mean time
I will stick a picture up later of my bike in the show your bike off bit

Thanks again , best wishes for Christmas....

Matthewfalle

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19756646#p19756646]Michelle L[/url] wrote:

Morning Guys

Thank you kindly for your advice , Sungod I will look for the closest repair shop to me with the links you put up ,, I am in Hertfordshire ,, sunny Hertfordshire..

The picture is not very good I have to say , the chip is on the outside so I am pretty sure its not from anything coming off the spokes..
I have had a few carbon frames with some deep chips in and its never bothered me , but I have never had one where I can see the carbon and I have just bought the bike so you can see why I would be worried..

I think for now I will wait till my epoxy turns up and put some of that on to protect the carbon , then I may just take my bike into a repair carbon shop just to get the ok..
But yes I will be riding my bike in the mean time
I will stick a picture up later of my bike in the show your bike off bit

Thanks again , best wishes for Christmas....

If you want to take it to a repairman for an opinion I would do that before putting the epoxy on otherwise he is likely to say something like "Oooooh, can't really tell because it's got epoxy all over it".

So, imho, choices are to either put epoxy on and leave or get opinion and then put epoxy on.

sungod

as above, do NOT put any epoxy/whatever on it if you intend getting advice about repair

if you want to cover it temporarily, use a bit of insulating tape

it'd help if you can take a high resolution picture of it under good lighting and post just the part showing the damaged area

otherwise, unless you can see broken cf fibres, it's probably fine

btw a simple test is to use a coin and tap gently along the tube, if the sound suddenly changes near/around the visibly damaged area it can be a sign of hidden trouble

Michelle L

This is the biggest picture I can put up :? .

Matthewfalle

Stone chip?

Point of impact at the centre, residual paint cracking around?

Michelle L

Hi there

The bike has never seen the outside from what she told me , she only ever had it on the turbo trainer , its right on the side , I think the bike has fell over , that's the only thing I can think of..
As you can see its had a good wack though.
I have done the coin test and there is a nice ping all the way round so no dull noise.
I think I might be lucky with it hopefully.

sungod

Michelle L wrote:

This is the biggest picture I can put up :? .

you can put it here http://postimage.org/ and post a link, the native hosting on the forum is very limited

may've been clipped by a cleat getting on/off, or something similar, it looks cosmetic though, don't think you have much to worry about there

Michelle L

Ok thank you , that's good to no