I was on a ride today with my friend, his brother, and his dad. At the end, my friend's brother was bonking, so his dad stayed back at a leisurely pace with him while my friend and I went fast. We got to a meeting point and waited for the stragglers. They got there eventually and it turned out that my friend's brother crashed, bringing his dad down with him. I examined his bike (a proteam Raleigh full carbon bike that was actually used in sponsored races) and I noticed a ~10mm diameter dent where the paint was flaking. The rd hanger was bent as well. I examined it, and the carbon is cracked. It's a nice bike, so there's no way he'd just get a new frame. I recommended Calfee to him, but I wasn't sure about any other companies that do carbon repair. He wants it to look like new.

Keep in mind he also has carbon Zipp bars, so do you think those are damaged? Anything else he should check? Pretty much everything on the bike is carbon fiber (including the Sram Force shift levers). Source for replacement shift levers (not the whole brifter)? He scraped up the drive side one.

He's lucky his head didn't hit the ground, since he's recovering from a concussion. He should be dead. Fwiw, he was wearing a helmet, but that wouldn't have done much if his head hit the ground while he's recovering from a concussion. He was being stupid, riding with his hands off the handlebars at around 15mph while the wind was gusting at 20mph.

buying a new one it should be.. it's, I think , technology that is on the leading edge of durability.
traded off for light weight, and. so A Consumable..

reads like it was a former racing cast off, now is the time to start with the use meter set at zero..

It was a racing bike. He bought it used from a super high end shop. Other than the crack from his crash, the bike is perfect.

Calfee is the best known of the carbon repair shops so you can't go wrong with them. As to the bars and other carbon parts, their integrity after the crash has to be determined by a direct inspection. Our opinions without seeing them are of no use. I tend to agree with fietsbob that a new bike, or at least a new frame, may be cheaper than the repairs and takes all question out of the frame's safety.

BTW, if he was riding while recovering from a concussion, IMO he was being stupid well beyond the no-hands and clowning around part of it.

Any carbon crack/break can be repaired to be as strong or stronger than new. The only consideration is, as mentioned, the cost and a few extra grams of weight if you want some extra re-enforcement over the original construction. Here is at least one place near Denver and my guess would be there are others as the need is growing for CF repair services. https://altitudecomposites.com/Altitu...s/Welcome.html I have no experience with this place but get some photos or check out what they have in the shop to see the quality. Make sure any place you choose can give you some examples of their work and runs a professional operation since anybody with 5 mins of experience can open a business and slop on some CF and call it a repair. Try contacting Calfee first to get an idea of what the best in the business charges.

That's odd statement, the bike is broken but other then that it's perfect!

He only has 3 choices, either contact Calfee as others have mentioned which requires stripping the bike completely including the fork and headset, and send it postage paid and I think $100 for them to look at it which is non refundable, then they will determine if it can be fixed and how much it will cost.

Option 2 is to buy a new frame and transfer all the components to the new frame.

Option 3 sell the bike as is with full disclosure, take the money to put a small down payment on the price of a new bike.

A minor nit that i will pick at.

"He only has 3 choices, either contact Calfee as others have mentioned which requires stripping the bike completely including the fork and headset, and send it postage paid and I think $100 for them to look at it which is non refundable, then they will determine if it can be fixed and how much it will cost." rekmeyata


The $100 is the cost to asses the bike and create an estimate for potential repairs. There's no reason why it should be refundable. Andy.

Or you can just go to their site, fill out a work order and include some photos which they have links all set up for you already and possibly they can give you a ballpark estimate. Free and easy.

Calfee's absolutely fine, but they're not the only game in town. Most major markets, and I bet Denver does, have certified carbon repair shops that will repair a carbon frame and warranty their repair. Check around, as it would save you the time and expense of shipping.

... other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the Theatre?

Send them an email and some good photos and see what they think about the repair and cost.
They are in So. Cal.
Carbon Frame Repair https://www.carbonframerepair.com/

Is the seat stay or the chain stay damaged? The hanger is usually a separate part easily replaced. My son's
Bike suffered a cracked seat stay and broken hanger I repaired it using an epoxy filler, no problems a season later. The hanger was a $15 part.
I am not recommending this to you, just saying look at the damage carefully before doing something expensive or drastic.

I'm not sure why you are spreading misinformation. I believe I have seen you write that you work in the industry. You must know that carbon can be repaired as good (or better) than new, and usually for cheaper than a new frame would be. At least in the case of relatively high end frames.

I haven't been to their website in awhile, last time I was there they said they would not do it by photos because there was too many things that could go wrong in estimating a price or whether or not it could be fixed. Maybe they have a better clue as to what their looking at now from experience to be able to that without seeing the bike firsthand.

I suppose that is where the cost /benefit calculation comes in.. & I cannot make that for someone else.

I just own a Carbon Fiber Mandolin,

[ I wanted to find some Spooky, NL made, Cyclocross Cantilever Brakes
was only able to find the Carbon-fiber ones on Closeout.]

I'm not so sure he's that far off the mark. It partly depends on why you bought a CF frame in the first place and what you consider 'a repair'.
This is an example of the kind of 'repairs' that calfee is doing.
https://www.bicycling.com/maintenance...repair-service
Those are the least sophisticated, and have the lowest strength to weight ratio of any CF construction method so the repaired frame will definately be heavier than the original. How much heavier and how critical that is would depend on where the repair was made, what the intended use was and the kind of load it had to bear. For a professional racer counting grams - I can't see repairing and reusing a damaged CF frame.

Critical fiberglass, kevlar and carbon fiber manufacture in aerospace has typically always been done with vacumn bag techniques as that produces the fewest number of pinholes, bubbles and other structural defects. A similar but different process is used in the manufacture of most high end thermoset CF bicycle frames. I don't see any of that touched on in the calfee site.

Of course, once everything is nicely painted - its impossible to visually see any difference, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. However - since the average consumer doesn't really NEED a CF frame anyway, and isn't measuring their performance to three decimal places - their service is probably more than good enough for most people.

A damaged carbon frame is considered trashed, don't use. Sorreee.

There is also the possibility that there is damage beyond what you can see.

Again this is simply not true. Several places that can repair carbon have already been mentioned in this thread. But don't let a lack of knowledge prevent you from expressing your erroneous opinion.

I suppose what it all comes down to is the question of is the cost of an adequate and workman-like (if not the most sophisticated) repair low enough to make it worth while or is the frame itself not so costly to replace that a repair isn't justified.

I think I'd send it to the manufacturer, Raleigh, for the repair. Or at least contact them for advice.

Uh, yeah, Raleigh don't do that...

"Raleigh" nowdays is a marketing company, owned by a Dutch company, that resells bikes built to spec in China. good luck getting support from them.


an actual pro team racing bike was built for a single purpose, and is just barely strong enough to survive a season or two of major races by a A team rider.

I own a carbon "pro team racing bike" with at least 50,000 miles on it, plus two crashes. The frame is still perfect. I expect it to easily go another 50,000. The carbon repair should be no big deal. A full repaint would be the worst of it. Carbon's pretty easy to fix compared with those other materials. Sure, it'll probably gain an ounce or two. I doubt that will be a big issue. Will need to strip it naked for the repaint or can just fade the paint in, not perfect but would be good enough for me.

Incorrect in the sense that Raleigh's bicycles are all Chinese made... like Schwinn there are several tiers of Raleigh bicycles and when you look at the top they have some very nice bicycles on the market.

As to carbon repair, it is possible and I have partnered with a company that specializes in carbon fibre design and fabrication and it's owner was a pioneer in developing carbon fibre frames and components for some of the biggest names in cycling so he really understands his stuff. John Tomac used to be one of his test riders.

Now he builds parts for F1 cars because that is where the big money is, but his heart is with cycling and he takes on carbon fibre repair when jobs come up.

We recently repaired an Orbea that had what was some damage to the chain stay and if the damage had not been where the decals were, you would never know the frame was ever damaged and it is stronger than it was originally.

Sorry to say it, but this specific Raleigh is in fact Chinese made.