So I was volunteering at the co-op yesterday, when a friend of a friend comes in with this on his arm (insurance covered it)...



Yoink! Bit of crash damage; the seat tube copped a whack above the FD and RD hanger was badly bent... thanks to a well-chosen alloy for the hanger I was able to straighten it with barely any crazing of the anodising, which was nice.

The damage to the seat tube:



The tube doesn't ring any differently at that point, and doesn't feel any softer either, so I reckon I'll just soak it in a bit of epoxy, touch it up and ride it.

Seems like there's plenty of spare carbon; the frame weighs just under 1.2kg, which isn't very impressive for a modern carbon monocoque. The fork's pretty hefty too, at just over 600g.

But beggars can't be choosers

Bit of a puzzle at the BB; a couple of strange holes. If I poke in a cable I get it up into the seat tube, but I'm not sure what good that would do anyone... way too small for Di2 wires.

Maybe for a cadence and/or a power sensor? But I have NFI where the wires would come out...

I don't know what the hole in the down tube, but some frames with a similar web between the chainstays have holes for FD cable routing. I'd mount a crank and front derailleur and see id the travel and angles are OK, and if so, simply use a bit of body filler above and below the braze-on for looks. Otherwise, drill out the rivets, fill the tube back to contour, and use pop rivets to affix the braze on.

Nice score. Enjoy it.

I probably should've taken the BB shot with cable guide in place; the upper hole on the right of the pic is for the FD.

I think you must be misinterpreting the pics; the only damage is in the patch of removed paint; the FD hanger is fine. BTW, it's bolted on, and etched with 'standard' (presumably vs compact, or maybe triple?) - neato.

The holes in the frame could be there for the sole purpose of being used for the finishing process? maybe?

Doubt it; the one next to the FD cable hole could easily be made redundant, and if a vent hole for the downtube was required and the bidon bosses weren't already in place, a hole through the BB shell would've been more likely on a frame with this much attention to detail, I reckon...

Those are weep holes put there to drain any water. They are there to prevent the carbon fiber from rusting. Haven't you ever seen a rusty carbon fiber bike? Oh boy, those are nasty!

Awesome score, BTW! I'm jelly!

Ah. Sense is made

Initial build:



Not done yet... get a load of the crazy expander plug mod I did: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...1#post16204332

Boy, Kimmo, you sure know how to live life on the edge. Those "mods" are so unnerving as to make one always follow "the rules" when dealing with carbon anything.

Got all my RED gear; this bike's nearly finished! More pics soon

Oh, come off it with the scare quotes; it's just an expander plug. It still plugs and expands just fine; in fact it grips better now. I called it crazy because of the amount of work involved to lighten such a small part by 25%.

And the makers of some full-carbon forks like the Columbus Minimal I've ordered for my other bike say it's okay to cut the steerer flush, and that fork weighs just over half what this one does. Some of that is certainly in the steerer.

^Lighten up Kimmo! This board is nothing but scare when it comes to CF!

Actually, the dire warnings of imminent death go far beyond CF. We hear them all the time here for just about anything that is not 100% perfect.

Amen, brother! Think "Viscount Death Fork" and "Ti MTB Stems".

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