KillerBeagle

Give that man a cigar! I did take it to a Trek dealer as promised, and the mechanic's final statement was "I wouldn't ride that." However, he said the Trek warranty might give me some (not much) money towards a new bike/frame even though I'm not the original owner, he also gave me the name of a local shop that builds and repairs CF, and he recommended the repair route as the most economical.

For a bike that only cost me $600 nearly new (maybe 10 miles on it) on ebay, I'm not sure that it's worth what's probably $200 minimum to repair.

Honestly all I wanted was a judgement of whether the damage was cosmetic or not; I fully expected to be told not to ride it if the damage was not obviously cosmetic, as the shop simply has no other choice in today's lawsuit-happy environment.

Thinking about this a little more, it almost seems that with the fragility of CF, it only makes sense to buy a frame with any CF components only from a dealer, fully expecting that there will be a failure during the "lifetime warranty". Even if I can get the same thing for half price on ebay, if it fails once, I'm already at about the same price.

Oh, and I did a 4-mile test ride on Friday, then the 44-mile charity ride on Saturday, with no ill effects. There are no changes in the dimensions of the crack. I'm looking at repairing and/or replacing the frame anyway, but it doesn't seem like I need to rush. If I had been on the ball I could ride one of my old bikes, but they are both in the midst of very slow complete rebuilds.

Thanks very much for that link and your experience! I am very much a DIY type and it definitely looks doable.