I Invisiframed my bike from new and when it looked like a section was lifting, I ordered a new piece… When I took the old tape off though some paint and finish came too. On first sight it looked like a paint failure and I took it back to my LBS. On closer inspection, there are radial cracks in the paint and it looks like the failure is down to an impact.

Specialized have made a generous crash replacement offer but the attraction is dampened by the step forward a model year to boost spacing and external BBs which means much faffing with new cranks, spacing and dishing wheels etc.

Before I leap in
• Does anyone have experience with frame damage? I’m not sure what bad looks like or if it can be diagnosed.
• Any recommended frame repairers?
• Can someone diagnose without having to sand the frame? I’m not sure how much wriggle room Spesh will give me (but will ask). I imagine their POV would be to not encourage frame repair as a matter of brand protection.
• Any other related wisdom / advice gratefully received.

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0NGdIshaGq2lGt

My daughter is an aerospace engineer specialising in the use of carbon composites in that industry. She told me about a firm doing carbon bike repairs called Carbonology, but looking online their website is no more.

Google throws up Carbon Bike Repairs. Have a look at their site.

I have seen and ridden a couple of repaired carbon frames. The repair in both cases was obvious but the ride seemed ok.

There was a thread on here about a week or so ago talking about carbon frame repairs.
Have a search.

Mate cracked his canyon and it was repaired by http://carbonbikerepair.co.uk the repair is very hard to see. Excellent job.

Just leave it, it doesn’t look that bad and will (probably) be fine given where it is. Keep an eye on it, if it looks like it’s getting worse then explore your other options.

Second for carbon bike repairs. A second frame is now with them. Both have been spesh with damage far worse than yours. Repair has been far more cost effective than their crash replacement (about £250 for the repair).

‘If it looks like it’s getting worse’ – not great advice for carbon, that.

I wonder if that damage is caused by clamping on the frame? Best remember Carbon bike manufacturer’s recommend not to clamp the frame.
carbon clamping

Target Composites are very highly recommended (Cheshire)

I’d be taking Specialized’s offer and putting up with the hassle/faff factor, personally.

I had a failed frame earlier this year which got me chatting to Trek about assessing carbon for damage. I’m a radiologist so imaging things interests me! Anyway, I spent Saturday evening with one of the Trek team ultrasounding and CT scanning carbon frames and bits. From the overtly broken to the subtle and then to compression delaminations we caused in normal tubes – CT can see them all. Ultrasound can too though it’s much harder. All of which is interesting but the output is ‘so what’? The interesting observation is that while the repaired area of a fracture can be great depending on where you go, they repair is often stronger than the original tube which creates new areas of stress into areas of tubes which are not necessarily designed to take that stress, increasing the risk for failure down the line.

 

My personal take is that if I know there is damage I would rather go through a replacement than a repair for the sake of longer term peace of mind. Also there is a thought that says you will have difficulty selling a repaired frame should you subsequently wish to..

 

Just my 2p!

take a look at the Luescher Teknik channel on youtube, Aussie fella, Ex-Boeing composites engineer apparently, does cut-ups of old frames and parts and some interesting stuff showing how he characterises damage using ultrasound.

But yeah, maybe take the cheap frame from Specialized and keep the old frame to flog on to recoup some of the cost?
People do buy damaged composite frames to have them repaired as a cheap way to get a posher bike for less…

As a side note, this perhaps illustrates the limitations of helitape/invisiframe, perhaps something more substantial that can actually absorb some impact energy is needed for your new frame…

We have had two crash replacement carbon frames through Specialized, an Enduro and a Stumpjumper. Both were damaged during Alps trips. My understanding is that Specialized will want the old frame back so they can go through the process of how the damage occured and how did the rest of the frame hold up. They did with ours.
Both frames were in a bit of a mess if that helps.

Thanks all for your advice and pointers. I’ve taken more photos to get feedback and an estimate from a couple of the repairers. A big part of this is how many hundreds to get a repair and paint job. If it’s over £1000 then just upgrading gets much more attractive.

Update to follow….

I’ve used these ( http://www.carboncyclerepairs.co.uk/index.html )to repair the seatpost clamping area on my Trek HT, bought it second hand and was fitted with the wrong size reverb that cost £160 but looking at their website there are road bikes that have been snapped and repaired

It really shouldn’t top £1k, more likely less than half of that*
The whole point of a repair is it’s more economical than binning the frame and buying a new one…

*(I am not an expert or professional composites engineer)

Essentially what you are paying for is more the Man hours (skilled labour) rather than just the material cost… You could save a bit if you are willing to forgo a tarty paint job and instead just cover up the repair with one of the more substantial rockguards now available, assuming it’s a smaller local repair and not a monster extending halfway along the tube, paint can cost more than the repair.

Update. I had a moment of genius and checked my house policy. Turned out that a bike is a personal possession and I had cover for more than enough cover for possessions away from the home.

Interestingly the insurers specialists, Wheelies, can get a crash damage replacement out of Spesh for an insurance job and they have to pat full whack so I get a shiny 2018 frame. They also cover the consequential changes of moving to Boost and external BB.

Only slight annoyance is that I’ll end up with a wheelset that’s boost at the back and not boost on the front.