Scarbo

Oh, North Bay. Scratch my motorcycle theory.

This animus is definitely more an SF South Bay phenomenon.

Sorry about your bike!

woodcraft

OMG, I should have listened to you guys.

I was just riding along, when CRACK & I was on the ground.

woodcraft

Just Kidding.

I did get to ride someone's new Tarmac for a few minutes- it felt really good, stable and sure-footed.

woodcraft

Put maybe another 1200 miles on w/ the tape,

& settled on DIY repair.

Amazon kit- $39, + many You Tube videos watched.

Progress so far:

Maelochs

I would probably not ride it, but you may well find the damage is not that deep. You might be fine

On the other hand you might be going downhill at 45 mph and not see the vibration building the shearing forces until the frame rips instantly and you die.

I am sure it can be repaired for a few hundred or so (well, based on numbers I have seen as estimates from well-known shops in other posts ... we all know everything on the internet is true.)

Obviously you need two bikes. I am shocked you would post here and admit you only have one.

Shame that there are people in the world who do harm. They pay, one way or another, but knowing that doesn't really ease the pain.

woodcraft

A scary scenario for sure!

I do have other bikes- you can see two in the background of the pics- but this one is dialed in

& gets the most mileage.

San Pedro

Well, if you already put 1200 miles on it, it seems to be working out okay so far...

SHBR

I'd be nervous if my metal bikes were damaged like that, especially if I didn't witness the event.

I'd reckon a new frame is a lot cheaper than the medical bills.

Murphy's law says that whenever something fails, it will fail at the worst possible time, without warning.

Consider yourself lucky.

mister

The fragility of carbon frames is why I quit riding them.

I had a similar situation about 10 years ago and the collective answer was “It’s probably safe, but you never know...”.

TrojanHorse

Not for nothing, but Specialized frames improved dramatically between 2007 and 2017 (one man's opinion). Time to promote your repaired bike to backup status.

topflightpro

I feel like that repair is cosmetic only. I'm not sure if it would improve or repair the structural integrity of the tube.

noodle soup

+1

I hope there are photos missing between the 1st and 3rd.

Seattle Forrest

I wouldn't have ridden it, but it says a lot about the supposed fragility of carbon fiber that you've survived 1,500 (?) miles like this.

KD5NRH

This. If you're worried about your bike breaking, don't ride plastic in the first place.

alpine 318is

When you sanded down past the paint what did you find out about the crack?

woodcraft

Agree. Have come somewhat close to getting a newer frame used. Happy with 10 speed,

& recent Tarmacs have an integrated seatpost clamp that appears to suck.


The pics show epoxy layer and then tape wrapping the 1+ layer of CF.

This morning got it partially sanded.

woodcraft

The same as you could tell before sanding- cracked, one side slightly pushed in.

woodcraft

Final sanding:

TrojanHorse

At this point, if you're up for that amount of work, you might consider sanding the whole frame and sending it out to be painted. Bikes are so boring these days... black black blackety black.

woodcraft

I'm starting to get nods from roadies lately- apparently it now looks retro., so why mess with that?

Really, I don't care that much. I'm happy that it only cost one ride in down-time.

robbyville

Happy that it's working out for you! I'm a one bike guy and let a guy I ride with know that I'd be selling my bike in February once my new frame came in. He decided he was interested and listed his bike somewhere. His bike sold within a day which put him without a bike. I felt guilty even though he hadn't paid me the full amount for mine yet, so for a couple of weeks we had a fun custody game with him getting the bike 3 days a week and me getting 4. I started to worry about the "what if's" and just gave him the bike full time.

I should have rented a bike or something for the last few weeks, not having a back up sucks. I would have kept my old if I could have afforded both but the spousal unit can only take so much!

I would agree that once time allows you should prep the frame for a new paint job. Unless of course you want to watch your repair to ensure it doesn't mess up

Maelochs

I am highly impressed that the repair came out looking so good.

Post every few months so if we don't hear from you will will know not to Ebay a CF repair kit, please.

Thanks.

TrojanHorse

You need to change your ways!

I've been a one-bike guy forever, which causes issues... so I am building up my old steel bike from 1992 for trainer duty and coincidentally bought a new bike at the same time, so now I'm a three bike guy. It's much nicer, I assure you.

robbyville

yeah I hear you. I will also slowly start to build up a back up bike sometime soon. My challenge is that I spend too much on the primary so am forced to sell any ancillary items!

TrojanHorse

I went with "honey, it's not worth anything anymore anyway"