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Following on from yesterdays thread, anyone have any experiences of owning and riding repaired carbon frames?
Good or bad, was it worth it and do you still consider your repaired frame to be your best bike? Or is it now relegated to winter duties?
All a little subjective, but maybe helpful in decision making while I wait for and consider a quote.
Particularly interested in long term.
A guy I was at uni with (late 90s...) had a carbon frame that cracked at the chainstay due to chain suck. He repaired it with some carbon fibre and resin and it's still in use now. One of the advantages of carbon is that if you understand how, you can repair it and it can be at least as strong as it was before.
My 'joint favourite' bike is 'reassembled' with 'glue and string' - literally the back end was in pieces - I've since chucked it down some big hills and so far I've lived 🙂
It's not pretty and I overdid it with the layers but for about £25 worth of DIY carbon and resin - I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Encouraging, I have two road bikes which I suspect are very repairable.
One which I'd like build up as my winter bike so not fussed about cosmetic perfection as long as it's structurally sound, the other I'd like to treat to a new groupset and wheels for summer duties.
There was a thread on here a few months ago on this subject, think you would find it useful if you haven't read it yet.
I posted this thread a while back
http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/carbon-fibre-repair-an-experiment
If you get it repaired professionally there really is no reason why a good bike can't be as good as new. I know lots of people who've used the bloke near Norwich and fully recommend him.
Looks like I'm driving up to CBS at the weekend to get them looked over for a quote.
They won't quote off pictures which I suppose is fair enough, may have been stung in the past and I'd rather them give me an accurate cost rather than a cover all bases one!
Ball park figure, what could I realistically expect before I make the journey?
I imagine it's a fairly straightforward repair, top tube wrap with paint.
The carbon repair will probably be less than £100. The cost of the paint will be down to how complex a paint job you need repairing. Lots of stripes and colours equals upwards of £100, but worth it if you want it to be as new. No issues with not painting it if you're less of a tart.
The one I'd like painting is plain white, I'd lose the logo but not fussed about that.
The other will be a winter bike, paint not necessary.
If those are the sort of figures I can expect then hopefully it won't be a wasted journey, may even be cheeky and ask him about a two for one deal!