Hello, a friend has asked my partner would they consider buying a five year Old carbon frame that has had a full repair via a reputable company, the damage was a rock strike to a seat stay.

I would not … Daughters say yes it will be fine…..STW says…???

If it’s off a friend then yes as it’s prob stronger after the repair as the carbon lay is prob thicker , mine was after my repair , but I would want it At the right price tho

Yes.

Depends on the price, but possibly, yes.

I rode one for two years, I had no problems, and then sold it, buyer was fine with it and I’ve never heard from him since so assume it’s still fine.
It was a proper professional job though, the ‘seatstay’ bit of a swingarm had snapped clean through and Silverfish were being useless about warranty work so I had to get it fixed rather than replaced.

If the price was right – yep.

from a proper company. if it was cheap then yes

Yes, I think a lot of people are confused by carbon. Its not some magic material that only magicians can make / fix. Its not hard to fix. Sure you can fix it badly from a cosmetic point of view, and I sure you could bodge it with some glue. There was a good article in the magazine a while back about a carbon frame repairer. I had a carbon road bike frame repaired by him – you couldn’t see the repair.

Well at least the seller is being open about it, a work colleague had a repair done to a chain stay following a crash, you’d never know to look at it, very good job.

I’d go with a yes.

Yes

mmmm yeah I’d have no issue buying and riding, however

The frame won’t be “as designed”

A properly designed carbon frame will have different layups and thicknesses in different places, saving weight and building in stiffness or flex as the designer intends

A repair, yes will be effectively stronger than the original, but you will lose this designed in flex as the repair will be stiffer than surrounding.

This may lead to other parts of the frame flexing in response, meaning the frame will have different ride characteristics to those intended by the designer

You pay more for a high end carbon frame for these designed in ride characteristics and not just for the badge.

So if you are happy to forgo the full “experience” of a high end carbon frame then yes buy it – but it would have to be cheaper than an equivalent, and the impact on ride quality equivalent to the ride of a frame in the new lower price bracket.

Extreme example but its a bit like buying a santa cruz hightower and then fitting a coil shock from a kiddies URT bike.

The bike will be compromised from the original design – whether it is perceptible to you or not is a different matter.

Can you see the spoon bonded to the repair site or is it blended in…

I have a 2019 YT Jeffsy that cracked on the downtube (under a plastic guard which isn’t cracked) which I had repaired by Carbon Bike Repair in Surrey last year, no issues since I got it back. I also have a friend who did a DIY job on a cube stereo frame, with a kit from Ebay, not sure what it cost him but that was 5 years ago and his brother in law still uses it with no problems. I work as a welder and I would definitely not buy a repaired alloy frame but I would CONSIDER carbon if it was professionally repaired

Initial thought no, but depends:

If the repair was done by a reputable company; maybe
If I was riding mostly XC where a failure would hurt but not kill, the price was right, and I really wanted/needed a new bike; probably
If I was riding more DH where a failure could do me some serious damage; no, regardless of price

It is a blended repair, the seller is not anyone we know, frame is full suspension.

I still say no , as price is highish but it is from a boutique brand who no longer make bikes.

I said yes, but tbh I’d be less likely to buy it as it’s 5 years old, not because of the carbon repair.

Yeah, definitely. This is partly why I buy second hand carbon full suspension bikes now, rather than aluminium ones. I save half the price of buying new at the expense of not having a warranty, but if it does break it can always be fixed and it’ll work forever. As a bonus, I also get a lighter bike that still looks good a few years down the line.

I’ve had one repaired bike in the past – I bought it off a pal. He’d cracked around the bottom bracket and a water bottle on the seat tube had worn a hole in the down tube. He had them repaired- you could see it as the weave was different but if you ran your finger over it you couldn’t tell. I raced that frame and never had any problems.

I’ve sold a repaired carbon FS frame before (cable rub, not a crack), and I accepted a lower price than it would have fetched otherwise.

Even if repaired, the bike is still “damaged goods” to a buyer.

But some sellers may not understand this, or be keen to recoup as much as they can after spending on the bike AND the repair.