no pictures at present, however noted what appears to be a ‘dent’ or slight hollow in carbon fork on my 3 month old Defy yesterday. It’s on the outside face, disc side, about 10mm dia, and less than 1mm deep. It is in line with a wee lug for disc hose cable zip tie. There is no cracking in the paint and I suspect it has been there since manufacture and I’ve just not noticed it !

I could take it back to LBS who supplied bike, for a look, or just forget about it. My feeling is that if it was something that has occurred from use, there would be a crack in the paint surely ? I haven’t dropped it or crashed it. No sign of any impact damage on the paint at all…which makes me think it must be a painting issue, or a slight imperfection before it was painted.

Worth a check, or just forget about it ?

If it’s worrying you enough to spoil your riding then ask someone to have a look at it. However, unless the shop has other bikes with that exact fork then their opinion will be no more valid than your own. The next avenue would be some sort of x-ray/ultrasound inspection. I don’t know who would pay for that or for how long you’d be without a bike.

Thanks Colin – given I have ridden it for about 700 miles or so and just noticed it yesterday I don’t think it’s spoiling much of the riding. I’m pretty confident it’s a bit of a manufacturing blemish so will likely do nowt (except as opinions on the internet of course 🙂 )

One of the simplest non-destructive type tests is a tap test. Get a coin and lightly tap the edge on and around the area. If the sound is relatively consistent it might just be a layup / curing issue when the forks were built. If the sound gets a bit ‘dull’ in the affected area it might indicate delamination internally after a knock.

Fingers crossed 🙂

I was riding my cross/tourer last week with one of jimmys friends when she asked if I was worried about the skinny carbon forks on it, given the state of some of the tracks. I told her I wasn’t but then kept thinking about them 🙂 I reckon it’s mostly a mind game!

thought I’d update this one. Took bike to the LBS, they had a good look at it, took some pictures and mailed to Giant UK. Just picked the bike up there at lunchtime with a new fork, fitted under warranty. Neither LBS or Giant know what caused it – the shop reckon Giant will hacksaw it to have a look !

i had a carbon fork from china once with a bubble in the top layer.

shop were pretty sure it wasn’t there when they sold me the bike, I didn’t notice it for the first 3 months I had it. Consensus is that it ‘occurred’ but not through any form of impact…

Will be interested to see if cutting it open reveals anything !