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Having not listened to the advice to go to hospital about a suspected broken finger I am now after advice about my bike!!
Specialized Diverge with full carbon forks and steerer. Crashed head first into another rider on a bso mtb. Bike stopped dead in its tracks and I exited stage front over bars.
I have checked over the bike and it seems ok, had a look at steerer and no obvious cracks but it did take big impact to steerer tube area and bars.
What are peoples thoughts, I'll get shop to look at it but the whole episode has meant I've lost confidence at bit in the forks, is this justified? (I expect given the future shock gubbins the replacement forks would have to be Spesh which will no doubt have a hefty price tag).
Shop won't have any more clue than you do, they would be unwise to tell you to do anything other than replace them. In there's part of the world, (Cheshire) there's a well regarded carbon repair company Target Composites who can do an ultrasonic inspection to determine if there's internal damage. I only found this out recently when someone on our club Facebook group asked a similar question.
Shop won’t have any more clue than you do, they would be unwise to tell you to do anything other than replace them.
Thats true I suppose.
But a good LBS might spot something as they deal with bikes all the time.
Does the shop/brand you bought it from do a crash replacement policy?
Does the shop/brand you bought it from do a crash replacement policy
Dont know I'll ask.
What is there in the way of evidence that carbon can be significantly weakened without showing damage?
EDIT quite a bit it would seem 😁
It might be in the physical properties of a carbon tube that it can flex and the shock of the impact can be able to travel up and down it without it being affected. You know when you drop a tube on the ground you get that kind of hollow boong noise and it vibrates back and forth til the shock dissipates, it could be like that.
Possibly consign them to a bike that sees no rough handling till your confidence grows about using them.
There are a lot of 9th hand pace rc31 carbon forks about, and I doubt many of their subsequent owners knows the full history. I'm using a white bros 2nd hand, also no idea of its history really, but no problems.