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Just chopped a carbon steerer.
Followed the correct procedure with electrical tape and cutting guide.
Had a small fray and just cleaned up with some emery cloth.
It looks fine and hardly noticible but is this gonna be a problem?
I have heard of people using epoxy and all kinds.
Is this necessary?
Thanks,
Max
Superglue is your friend.
Is it carbon friendly?
Yes, just run the glue round the cut edge, it will just tie any loose ends together. Obviously, it depends how bad the issue is, your definition of a fray could well be different to mine.
Go to a model shop and get Zap Pink superglue. Very thin and wicks into carbon better than anything else.
I must admit there must have been 3 or 4 fibres loose.
I lightly went over with emery cloth and it looks smooth with no fibres showing.
Just worried about the strength.
Mite have enough to trim a bit off.
Other than that leave a spacer on top and stem further down which seems the recommended practice.
Thanks,
Max
For 3 or 4 individual fibres, super glue will be fine.
I recommend you do not try another short cut, there'ss a higher chance of making the problem worse.
I always prefer to have the steerer above the top of the stem, even if you just put a 5mm spacer on top.
How is a bit of loose CF strand going to affect strength and longevity of the steerer? Its not like its going to unravel.
Just trim the loose threads with a sharp knife.
From your description it sounds fine if you can't see any evidence of it after cleaning up it should be OK. Superglue or similar would help to be more confident in it, you're basically guarding against delaminations happening, if some fibres were visible they may have begun a delamination that tightening a stem or, more inconveniently, riding over bumps, could turn into a failure.