Carbon Chainstay damage - Specialized Tarmac

Unless I'm mistaken, this is an SL5 - there would have been a bonded-on small square metal plate there that the chain has caught and pinged off... so most of what you're seeing their is the bonding ripping the paint off down to the primer and carbon. I spot some tiny fragment of torn carbon filament at the base, I reckon if you inspect them closely it'll just be a tiny layer thick of the outermost layer.... its unlikely there will be any gouges of any concern there. Its a relatively small tube cross section and in this area the carbon thickness will be fairly chunky, a scratch of a few tenths of a mm will make no difference. If it were me I'd a sand the shards a bit, and epoxy on a new plate... a specialized dealer could probably source one for you, though its nowt special...

... though do have a really close look at the fractured shard area and ensure it's not fractured because the tube is nerfed...

I’d smear some superglue over carbon after gentle sanding. And touch in with nail varnish etc in similar colour 🙂

Ride and never worry about it again

Cheers both, it's an SL6 but that may well have the same tab, will have a hint online. The cardon repair place is fairly local so might pop it in anyway.

. ignore. crosspost. Weird as the SL6 didn't usually have that plate, must just be that the chain's taken an uncannily symmetrical chunk off...

Can confirm the SL6 doesn’t have a plate. Well, my SWorks that I’m looking at now doesn’t anyway, doubt the non-SWorks would be any different.

Yes, looking online and at an SL6 frame for sale on eBay they don't have the tab

Just paint by the looks of that. I'd cut out a square of electrical tape, maybe double layer it, to cover the damage and protect the frame is it happens again.

Thanks all, will report back what the repair place say when I find out. Sounds like a light sand, superglue and a bit of tape or paint over it will work.

Have also had a look at a chain catcher, not that it's something that happens often but I don't want to make this worse if it happens again

The repairer has been in touch and said it looks more than cosmetic. Quite for repair and paint is quite a bit of money. Seed of doubt has been sown so not sure how I feel about riding it.

I appreciate a repairer is going to say get it repaired but from what I've heard they are an honest bunch

I’m not an expert, but that looks pretty superficial (just ugly). I’d put something over it to protect from a future chain suck incident and carry on using it

I've just got back from visiting CBR in Leatherhead where they did a visual inspection in addition to what they had already done via photos. Under the microscope you could clearly see a crack in the chainstay so looks like it'll be going in for a repair over the next few weeks. Glad I spotted it otherwise it could have got a lot worse