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Old 06-02-09 | 12:30 PM
  #4  
kenl666
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 186
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From: PNW (PDX)

Bikes: 1999 Lightspeed Classic, Specialized Stumpjumper

My front fork (CF) is all scratched up, even has a few gouges from the bus-rack hook. I keep an eye on it but don't worry about it too much, I figure I'll just replace the fork at the end of the season. If it experiences a catastrophic failure (is there any other kind of CF failure?) then I'll figure it's entirely my fault and replace the fork a bit sooner the next time. As to my teeth...

I used to have a Specialized Allez Epic (the old one with carbon tubes and aluminum lugs) and fixed up a few scratches with clear nail polish. I don't know if that made a difference, I was just worried about the scratches exposing the CF to the elements.

Another thing I did is strips of black electrician's tape in certain areas, e.g. on the bottom of the down tube and around the chain stays. You could try something similar on the inside of the forks. Or maybe there's something similar to the "invisible bra" products for cars? (to answer my own question, http://www.empireclearshield.com/sit...roduct/PPFbike is basically what I was thinking of)

Personally, I spent so much time worrying about scratching the frame that it kind of turned me off from the idea of CF frames. A fork can be replaced quickly & (relatively) cheaply, a frame is a different matter.
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