A friend has a small hole on his carbon road frame near the bb on the down tube. Can you repair carbon and does anyone know a company that will fix it? It does not seem to affect the frame and he does not want to throw it away! Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Well that is one of the advantages of cf though youneed some understanding to do it well. I'd suggest googling carbon fibre repair - there's loads out there.
😯 😕
HQ Fibre Products
Tel: 01603 713972
Vale Farm Workshop, Blofield Rd, Lingwood, Norwich, Norfolk NR13 4AJ
Experts in Carbon bike repair (amongst other things)
Thanks convert, the bike is going to be stipped down and sent within the week 🙂
Probably a bit late now, but i've seen snapped seat stays on Cervelos repaired before head tubes on CF Treks, all to v.good effect, so i'm pretty sure that a good repair will make the frame serviceable again. Never seen a whole tube repaired thou, like on a steel bike, i wonder how far a decent CF repair company could take it.?
2nd hq fibre repair, had some new dropouts fitted to a scott scale and was impressed with the work they did
Chris,
Can you let me know how you get on!? I've got a carbon frame with a inch and half crack on the down tube. Would love to get it repaired.
Cheers.
Matt
Yeah matt will put a pic up when the frame comes back!
Can you let me know how you get on!? I've got a carbon frame with a inch and half crack on the down tube. Would love to get it repaired.
Chris,
Tube is pretty easy to fix. All you need is some carbon mat, epoxy and shrink tape which I'd get from Carbonology (who actually do a kit as well as everything separately).
Shortened instructions:
Sand all round the tube by the crack, in two separate processes apply a couple of layers of carbon mat with a staggered overlay past the end of the crack, wrap well with shrink tape and heat well with a hairdrier.
Allow to set overnight and remove shrinktape. Fixed. Optionally apply car lacquer as a clearcoat or paint.
Mm, repairing cracked carbon frames.... how's you medical insurance? I've worked with the stuff for years in the aerospace industry. I [b]would not[/b] ride a repaired carbon bike.
Light, strong, cheap choose two
* PS - Mind you there was a guy on La Marmotte this year with a damaged top tube 'fixed' with copious amounts of tape!!! And he was a big lad. He fininshed OK, I checked because I was worried about him. Well done Lars!*
I'd ride repaired carbon if I was happy that it had been done properly. Why wouldn't I?
"Light/strong/cheap" has nothing to do with this scenario.
A material that can't be repaired??
Why would someone buy such a thing?
Mm, repairing cracked carbon frames.... how's you medical insurance? I've worked with the stuff for years in the aerospace industry. I would not ride a repaired carbon bike.
I think there's a big difference between aerospace carbon repairs and bike tube repairs (the fall before you hit the ground is a lot more for starters!).
I've used repaired carbon fibre on racing dinghies and yachts for years and the loads are far more than those on a bike. If a joint is cracked I 'may' think twice about it (unless I can vacuum bag the piece) but a simple cracked tube..... pretty straightforward I think. But obviously everybody has their own feelings on such things.
clubber - Member
I'd ride repaired carbon if I was happy that it had been done properly. Why wouldn't I?"Light/strong/cheap" has nothing to do with this scenario.
How would you know it was done properly? Unless you have x ray facilities to establish a level of damage? Access to both sides of the damage area is likely to be very difficult in the case of a cycle frame, so a quality repair using heat and pressure is unlikely.
Carbon can be [b]light[/b]. And we're all seduced by the promises of featherweight components and frames.
It can be [b]strong[/b] but is easily damaged. It has [i]very poor[/i] second impact strength.
It generally isn't [b]cheap[/b]! And it's not cheap or easy to repair. Personally I would be sceptical of some carbon repairs.
My point is, when you think about it, carbon is a poor choice of material for structural mountain bike components. Unless you can afford to throw away parts that may be damaged.
Keep it steel!
How would you know it was done properly?
How do you know your frame is built properly in the first place? You don't. You just trust the company that made it to have done it properly. Same here - you can get it repaired at a company you trust or do it yourself if you believe that you have the skills and knowledge to do so. If you don't trust anyone to repair it or don't have the skills then don't do it.
My point is, when you think about it, carbon is a poor choice of material for structural mountain bike components. Unless you can afford to throw away parts that may be damaged.
The same can be said for aluminium (and arguably steel if you're concerned about weight). All the bikes I've broken have been aluminium and steel - the steel one's been repaired which is great as it's my first proper mtb and I'd be sad if I had to bin it but for my more current bikes, I'd be happy with aluminium or carbon (though I don't actually have any carbon framed bikes) even knowing that if they break they're likely to be bin jobs for the other properties (weight, stiffness, etc).
That said, I'd actually argue that if the aluminium bikes I've broken had been carbon, in several cases, I'd have happily repaired them (eg broken chainstay caused by chainsuck, broken seat tube just above the BB) particularly as these are pretty straightforward repairs that I've seen successfully repaired in the real world (simple carbon fibre/matrix wrapping).
I'd do it without a second thought. I doubt the technique would be any different from patching fibreglass.
Epoxy is wonderful stuff.