Cracked frame

[fishboy316]

Hi folks,
It is with heavy heart I come to you today. I swapped some wheels from a bike my daughter and I bought. Cleand up the DAc50's to put on the bike. Decided to give her Spec Ruby a real good clean before I put the wheels on. It's a good thing I did. See she had a crash about 2 weeks ago and destroyed her front rim. I had a rag with a light degreaser on it and wiped over the top tube where it revealed a rather good sized crack at the head tube. Took it to the LBS I trust and they confirmed it is a crack.

Have done some checking around and found some repair options. I am going to tell her this afternoon=(. She is going to have a COW! Have any of you had any dealings with this type of repair? Does not seem to cost prohibitive. Some folks are opposed to carbon repair. Opinions Welcome.

Tks

[Painkiller]

Sorry to hear that. After you tell her the news, send me a steak! Pics are nice, but basically the closer the crack is to a joint the tougher it is to work with as opposed to the middle of the tube. You can save a ton of money doing it yourself if you are willing to take the time to do a nice job. You can get a decent paint job by using automotive paints put into spray cans if you do not have a spray gun setup at home.
Predator Cycling offers home kits and has some decent video's on you tube to help kickstart an attempt at doing it yourself. The average price for a crack repair is $300 give or take, not including refinishing which could easily be the same or more. Depends on who you have in your area, what they charge of course. If shipping back and forth could tag on another $100 or so. All said and done, for me I consider the frame worthless after a repair has been done to a carbon frame. Fine to keep and use but not for resale. Carbon fiber bicycles are the riskiest used bike purchase out there. The fail rate is very high compared to steel or aluminum counter parts. But I am sure there is somebody that would buy a repaired carbon frame, just not me. Assuming it was revealed by the seller that is.

[DaveM]

I'm sure knowledgeable people can ably repair a crack on a carbon frame. But that uses the assumption that any and all serious damage to the frame is visible. There could be other cracks or weakened areas that you would never see.

I'm no expert on carbon, but I wouldn't ride or put my kid on a carbon frame that had been in a serious crash and was damaged. YMMV

[Painkiller]

You can join this Facebook Group, you sell, buy and trade here.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlineswap/

[fishboy316]

After reading the post again I kinda worded it incorrectly, DUH. The bike that was cracked was the Ruby she already had(she has tons of $$$ tied up in it). We got the new bike for the Dura ace 9000 11 speed groupset and the DA c50 wheelset. It appears in GREAT shape. Will be posting pics as soon as I finish cleaning and fluffing. Almost so nice that I don't like tearing it up for the parts.

She was not happy but did inform me she has insurance on the bike. A $500 deductible and should be new frame time. She really tagged this bike when she crashed! Should get a new wheel also. So now she will be ok, we think. I will put it together and save a few bucks so all good. Will know more today. The wheels were turning as soon as I told her "Hmmm... Maybe a Tarmac frame" LOL!

PK, Steak will be forthcoming! LOL



Thanks for the reply's!
Bill

[Painkiller]

sounds good if she can get another frame, let me know what your plans are for her cracked one. may be interested in it if possible.

[fishboy316]

Will do PK. Will see what the Ins company wants to do with it. She was much better about it last night. She had this thing with her on 4 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. it helped her to keep her sanity. we were tweaking it up to be real bad a$$. on the flip side it would have been a disaster if we had not seen it. When it is done and over she will have a BA bike. She is trying to work out getting a Tarmac frame instead of a ruby.=) She got a lot of her Daddy's genes!LOL

[fishboy316]

Well it all has worked out. Got a repair done from an aerospace engineer who does this on the side for the LBS I go to. He said that the crack did not go as deep as he first thought so he only had to go a little less than half way into the frame. he did the repair and it was only $140! Picked it up yesterday and it looks GREAT! It fits in so well that I told her to skip the paint. Told her it would be a reminder of how not to ride! LOL Will have to get some pics of the job. Amazing how well it looks.

Bill