[Closed] how tough are carbon fibre bikes?

I won't do the usual 'its a sticker' thing 🙁

Have they given a reason - accident damage/rock strike or something?

Makes mental note never to buy a Cube bike..

1 month!?! And they won't warranty it? That's incredible.
Fight it!

[edit]Ah, it's a 650b..

Well I don't know the details of how it happened, but interesting to compare to Whyte's response on my 2009 e120 frame, which they replaced immediately

Cube's response is that its not a warranty issue.. need to buy a new arm. Not the kind of response I would have expected after buying a £4000 bike..

Seems a bit strange. Is this one of those 'someones not telling the whole truth' type things?

Edit: ENHANCE!

[img] [/img]

I'm no expert but that looks like impact damage to me.

was chatting to soomeone at a race he was on his 3rd set of chainstays for his intense tracer carbon

God, yes, and have you heard about the barbs going straight to your heart!? 😯

I think that you intended to type [i]'How tough are [b]cube[/b] bikes'[/i] as the thread title because no one would surely be silly enough to think that all carbon bikes are the same, would they?

Clubber (destroyer of many aluminium, steel and carbon frames...)

looks like impact damage rather than frame failure through poor manufacture, incorrect bonding etc.

When I've snapped a carbon frame (twice, two different manufactures) the only that looked like that was when I dropped it at low speed into some rocks in the peak.. not a big off, just unlucky.

The other, which was a frame failure due to manufacturing fault was a much tidier fail

On the upside, carbon is generally quite good at being repaired. Might be cheaper than a new arm.

Soooo glad i didn't buy one of these a month ago. Impact or not you should at least get one at cost!

Impact or not you should at least get one at cost!

and the OP hasn't said how much, just that he is expected to buy a new swing arm. Which with what looks like impact damage seems fair to me.

rock strike?

What's the weird little box cable tied to the chainstay?

rock strike?

That's what it looks like as there doesn't seem to be any scuffing to denote an off from what I can see. Shirley a mountain bike should be designed with rock strokes in mind, as the last time I checked mountains tend to be a bit rocky.

[i]What's the weird little box cable tied to the chainstay? [/i]

Garmin pedal/wheel speed sensor.

Garmin speed/cadence sensor

my firends aluminium jekyl has his heal imprent imbedded in it from a fall a innerleithen, the seatstay is a bit twisted and bent in but hes been riding it for a few months ever since

Originaly they wanted me to buy a complete frame but that has now changed......Replacement part is £270 for the lower arm only..

Cube said it's been hit by something which has cause it to fail.. The only protection on the bike is on the downtube.. the part that has broken has no form of protector to help deflect stones kicked up from the front wheels..

In all the time I have had the bike there have been no impacts that I would have taken any notice off.. We all hear stones bouncing off our downtubes and think nothing off it.. Obviously with carbon I am going to have to take more notice..

Should have bought a Santa Cruz.. their carbon seems to be pretty tough stuff... 5.00 onwards..

a mountain bike should be designed with rock strokes in mind

easy.. until you try to sell an 8-9lb carbon trail bike frame )

a thin metal or even additional carbon protector around the lower half of the arm would probably have saved it from breaking.

Guess they never thought of that when they designed it..

This bike isn't used for racing or crazy downhill events.. It's had a pretty easy life compared to what it supposed to be capable of...

double post

If you look through some of the enduro footage of the last few years there are quite a lot of chainstay, seatstay fractures on carbon framed bikes,admittedly bikes ridden hard by top racers, may be one offs not sure but even so frames knackered!!

If I had been riding it hard I would just put it down to experience and get on with it.. Thing is though.. It's been pretty relaxed trail riding that I have been doing.. Nothing harsh enough that I would think it should be damaged like it is..

the part that has broken has no form of protector to help deflect stones kicked up from the front wheels

What does the inside of the chainstay look like?

In all fairness, regardless of cause I'd hope for a goodwill gesture of some kind. Is the £270 cost price?

TBH... a neoprene chainstay protector, with a metal/plastic sheet held underneath would probably save that sort of damage in the future.

Might not look quite as pretty though.. 😉

Still not sold on carbon frames. Owned dozens of aluminium bikes, never broken one, owned 2 carbon bikes, cracked both. You generally chuck an extra £1k cash about a pound of weight savings, seems to be a rubbish trade off imo.

I fell 20 feet onto rocks down a ravine in Morocco on my carbon Tallboy. It wasn't even scratched. I, on the other hand, was ****ed.

Did you buy on a credit card?

Time to send in the heavies.

I, on the other hand, was ****ed.

Ah, but you're carbon based too 😛

I fell 20 feet onto rocks down a ravine in Morocco on my carbon Tallboy. It wasn't even scratched. I, on the other hand, was ****ed.

DirtyLyle, earlier.

Jamie - Member
I fell 20 feet onto rocks down a ravine in Morocco on my carbon Tallboy. It wasn't even scratched. I, on the other hand, was ****ed.
DirtyLyle, earlier.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir97936_CYo

Like the way the guy asks, "Did you film it?"

Never mind the slight issue of their mate falling down a cliff!!! 😯

Not sure I'd expect frame protection on a chainstay, certainly not from rock strikes off of the front wheel. That looks to me like a side-ish impact, so a rock flicked up from the front wheel and curved round the crank, pedals, and your feet (or bounced off of another rock perhaps) before hitting the bike mid chainstay with enough momentum to cause that kind of damage? You should buy a lotto ticket!
What does the inside of the chainstay look like?

In all fairness, regardless of cause I'd hope for a goodwill gesture of some kind. Is the £270 cost price?

The inside is still whole.. its only the other 3 sides that are split..

I was thinking I might use some of the insulation that plumbers use on pipes... the foam stuff..

I might just do the whole bike as I'm not 100% convinced that it was a fluke..

There was a ti frame on here a while back, a local rider dented and actually pierced a ti DT, from a bit of flint flicked up by his front wheel. A rigid 29er in the chilterns - hardly heavy use riding.

You can't protect a frame from every impact or crash outcome. Sometimes you're just really unlucky, like this one by the look of it. Seen same kind of written-off stay on an Al susser a few years ago - very low speed wobble onto some rocks. Dented a nice steel frame's seat stay hitting a sticky-out rock myself, no big crash needed. Sht happens..

I was thinking I might use some of the insulation that plumbers use on pipes... the foam stuff..

[img] [/img]

Oh glitchy bump....how much I've missed you!

Must admit, when that Cube came out and they talked about it weighing 26lbs or so I thought "Two to three pounds lighter than most Carbon Mojos/Nomads, but with bigger wheels..... must be fragile"

Do you use a bike rack to transport it?

Must admit, when that Cube came out and they talked about it weighing 26lbs or so I thought "Two to three pounds lighter than most Carbon Mojos/Nomads, but with bigger wheels..... must be fragile"

I am beginning to think that myself.. 🙁

The sad thing it.... its a fantastic bike.. I feels perfect on the trails and goes uphill like a train..

Not much use if it breaks like a toothpick

Do you use a bike rack to transport it?

yes .. been through that with the shop.. Its transported in the middle of a 3 bike Thule 9403.. towbar mounted bike rack..

The bit that is broken is mounted closest to the car..

That is in a really easy place to fix, either buy a kit and do it yourself, or I cant imagine it costing any more than £60 to get it professionally done.

That clip makes my fall look unmanly. I'll get back in my box.

Indeed, looks doable.

That is in a really easy place to fix, either buy a kit and do it yourself, or I cant imagine it costing any more than £60 to get it professionally done.

Wouldn't like to take the chance that the repair is weaker than it needs to be.. and it breaks at the most inconvenient moment..

and it breaks at the most inconvenient moment..

Can't be worse than the OEM.

Can't be worse than the OEM.

Fair point 😀

Wouldn't like to take the chance that the repair is weaker than it needs to be.. and it breaks at the most inconvenient moment..

Just get it professionally done then. Carbon repairs done correctly are always stronger than the area its repairing.
Yours is on the lighter side of what most repairers do. Ive seen bikes split in half be repaired!
[url= http://www.carboncyclerepairs.co.uk/index.html ]carboncyclerepairs.co.uk[/url]

[url= http://www.carbonframerepair.com/index.php/repair-gallery/ ]repair-gallery[/url]

To be fair that looks like it's been hit with an axe.

Carbon is as tough or as weak as you make it. My C456 was strong like ox- OK so all the finish fell off it, it looks like it's got excema but it wasn't weak.

http://flickr.com/gp/38306431@N05/9Do887

this was a bike roof rack meets garage door ...got repaired

gaffa tape repair?
[img] [/img]

I'm not sold on carbon either, not since I saw a guy at Wharncliffe sat sobbing as a Cornish pastie sized slab flicked up and trashed his downtube !

And to be honest what's a couple of hundred quid after throwing a £4 K lump on a bike, I don't want to point out the obvious but you've bought a budget carbon MTB !
Some one somewhere will have passed that design off fully expecting the bike to be stronger and lighter than the competition, but not really thinking about failure, I can't see the point in wrapping tin under a neoprene chain guard either as suggested above, I agree it would look shit but not only that it kind of renders the point of buying carbon ineffective ?

Or is it just me ?

Or is it just me ?

its just you

Just for balance - I drove under an arch with my bike on the top of the car. The arch caught the head tube of the bike, pulling the entire roof rack off the car and dragging it back over the roof. (I know...)

No damage to the bike at all, apart from some emulsion scraped onto the headtube. It's a carbon cube stereo 29er (140)...

Bike was in the middle of your bike rack? I wager that was where the damage occurred.

It's not acceptable for the bike to be damaged in a bike rack, sorry, but that's just a cop out. It's a mountain bike, it has to be robust and if it can't manage a trip in a bike rack, its just not good enough irrespective of what it's made out of.

Pedal damage from the next bike on your rack whilst on the car ?

That's what I was thinking. Maybe it was loaded a little loose, so you put in in carefully, and then when you went over a speedbump or something it got a clout from the other bike.

Anyway, OP - see if you can petition them [i]nicely[/i] for a reduced rate on the part seeing as it's such a new/nice bike. You'd think they would want to keep you as a customer?!

OP - I would go back to them, seems highly likely to be a manufacturing defect

I've been using carbon components on sailing boast for 15 years, it's super strong and you can have controlled flex but it's brtittle if damaged and prone to early failure as the manufacture can be less than scientific/unreliable. Also not all carbon is equal the strength varies greatly and the "higher modulus" ie stronger stuff is much more expensive

I personally would not buy a carbon bike frame.

I'm not sold on carbon either

Slightly odd statement when you were bleating on about how much you spend on bikes the other day!

Some one somewhere will have passed that design off fully expecting the bike to be stronger and lighter than the competition, but not really thinking about failure,

That's just a really stupid thing to say!

That is pretty poor, certainly looks like impact damage. I've heard bad things about Cube's warranty, you'd think given age they'd perhaps be a little more helpful. The credit card suggestion perhaps isn't a bad suggestion. Otherwise I'd definitely get that repaired, it'll be fine!

Slightly odd statement when you were bleating on about how much you spend on bikes the other day!

Quacking, surely?

I was waiting for the Santa Cruz video to be rolled out and offered up as proof positive that carbon frames are indestructible and metal frames are crap. Clearly their laboratory tests are not totally representative of real life. Yes, you can whack it into a concrete block, but what good is that if the chain stay can't survive a trip in a bike rack on your way to the ride site? A mate of mine has just trashed his 18 month Yeti 575. He's pretty tough on bikes as he likes to do a bit of trials stuff so is always whacking parts of the frame against rocks and denting the frame, but the metal part of the frame took the punishment fine. No beaks, no cracks. In the end it was the carbon rear triangle that failed. Doesn't quite stack up against the SC video. He's got a metal Nomad now.

[i]There was a ti frame on here a while back, a local rider dented and actually pierced a ti DT, from a bit of flint flicked up by his front wheel. A rigid 29er in the chilterns - hardly heavy use riding.[/i]

There's something about the Chilterns and Ti bikes...Seen a ti Inbred get a stick jammed in the rear mech and twist the hanger, friends Hummer snapped at the seat tube, the only...only place my Scandvik Hummer chainsucked was...

Weird.

Anyway, might not be a warranty, but still a bit shitty as a response for, as you say, a £4K bike

if you haven't banged it

go get it looked at by by an independant NDT/composites company if you do think you have a case for dodgy workmanship,

or tell the truth if you have banged it one and ask Cube nicely if they will do you a deal as you have a 4k bike without many miles on it

Some companies do crash warranties. They may not replace the frame FOC but will offer you one at a cut down price. Might be worth checking out

njee20, I'm not sure that carbon is a sign of expense, sure it costs a lot but that's of no significance to me as I would rather go with something that I trust and have found reliable riding on over two decades, the reason I'm not sold on it is because I have ridden my bike quite a bit and I often ride with others, the last couple of failures whilst out on the trail that stick in my mind have all related to carbon, to me that spells out a warning sign that before I spend my hard earned cash on something as fragile as a pedal bike I want it to be as strong as it possibly can, torsional rigidity, flex, and impact strike.

As for my really stupid statement, what can I say ! Except human error and incompatible design.
They get things wrong on multi million pound aircraft and trips to the moon why should a pedal bike be any different ?
Save for the fact that its built to a cost by the lowest bidder and mass produced ?

And as for the carbon Nomad that's been ridden for two years and been bench tested to within an inch of its life, it might have taken two ton beforet it failed and rather than the extrusion whipping off my b@ll@x like a scalpel in the aftermath of a big off I'd still rather have a bent frame over a snapped one.
But hey, if you want to believe the guys that sell 650b wheels to folk with a grudge against money then stand in line, they will quickly relieve you of your hard earned for producing a home made video of something that's been cobbled together in the lunch hour break !

Thats crap, really crap, that Cube wont replace under warranty.

I did something similar (drive side instead) to my Santa Cruz Blur XC (which I'd bought in the US & brought home with me) & Santa Cruz UK replaced it without charge..

I'm with the OP. The seatstays on my carbon Scott Genius failed a couple of weeks ago. The alu seatstays.

Bike was in the middle of your bike rack? I wager that was where the damage occurred.

impossible.. 99.9% of the time there is only one bike in the rack so there is nothing that can damage it. Having it in the middle allows for the 2 vertical uprights to be use to secure it.. instead of 1 if it were in either end slot..

Pedal damage from the next bike on your rack whilst on the car ?

On the odd occasion that there are 2 bikes in the rack.. they are put in the end slots so there is a good gap between them. The pedals don't go anywhere near the frames then. If there are 2 bikes in the rack.. which has only happened twice with this bike.. then this one was always put on first at the boot side of the rack..

That's what I was thinking. Maybe it was loaded a little loose, so you put in in carefully, and then when you went over a speedbump or something it got a clout from the other bike.

it cant be fitted loose. the tieddowns on the wheels are always rock solid when the bike is mounted and when the bike is taken off. If I am going on a long drive.. i double up the tiedowns just to be on the safe side..

if you haven't banged it

go get it looked at by by an independant NDT/composites company if you do think you have a case for dodgy workmanship,

or tell the truth if you have banged it one and ask Cube nicely if they will do you a deal as you have a 4k bike without many miles on it

If i had banged it.. i would fess up and pay for the damage.. If it was my fault I wouldn't have any issues with it..

Some companies do crash warranties. They may not replace the frame FOC but will offer you one at a cut down price. Might be worth checking out

At first they said I could only have a full crash replacement frame as they don't supply parts individually...
They have now offered to replace the faulty part only as a good will gesture.. cost £270

This is only the bottom arm.. not a full rear triangle or anything.. just the lower arm..

As far as I have experienced.. Cube's warranty isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

21 years ago i bought a steel rigid marin eldridge grade, it weighed 26lb.
fast forward and here we have full suss bikes with disc brakes that weigh the same (and less in some cases!)
is it possible that we are just finding the weight limit of a bicycle which can be used offroad?
my trusty old marin had numerous dents and scrapes over the 2 decades i used it, what finally did for it was rust.

gavstorie
it sounds
like you have
a warranty case.
Good luck,
man.

gavstorie
it sounds
like you have
a warranty case.
Good luck,
man.

You missed the bit where Cube have rejected the warranty case.

No I didn't, I mean - don't give up.

Its just bad luck it happened so early on, damage like that is as likely to happened on your first ride or 100th and on a £400 or £4k.

I'd look at the cost cost effective way of sorting it. If the bike rode well fix it/or replace the arm and keep it.

If it didn't decide if your going to sell it damaged or repair it then sell it.

Oh and sorry, sounds like its all a ballache.

I was waiting for the Santa Cruz video to be rolled out and offered up as proof positive that carbon frames are indestructible and metal frames are crap.

Clearly their laboratory tests are not totally representative of real life.

Yes, you can whack it into a concrete block, but what good is that if the chain stay can't survive a trip in a bike rack on your way to the ride site? A mate of mine has just trashed his 18 month Yeti 575.

He's pretty tough on bikes as he likes to do a bit of trials stuff so is always whacking parts of the frame against rocks and denting the frame, but the metal part of the frame took the punishment fine. No beaks, no cracks. In the end it was the carbon rear triangle that failed.

Doesn't quite stack up against the SC video. He's got a metal Nomad now.

Frame has a 5 year warranty, happy with that and confidence from SC that they didn't break a single frame in the world cup over 3 seasons

Lapierre replaced all the carbon chainstays in their 2014 spicy and zesty with aluminium versions....due to very similar issues.

21 years ago i bought a steel rigid marin eldridge grade, it weighed 26lb.
fast forward and here we have full suss bikes with disc brakes that weigh the same (and less in some cases!)
is it possible that we are just finding the weight limit of a bicycle which can be used offroad?

Mine is <22lbs (and not the lightest on here) and has taken plenty of abuse. Carbon front triangle is quite battered looking - no dents but decals and clearcoat coming off all over the place. I mentioned above which bit failed.

@ aracer, yeah ive heard of bikes that light before, they are amazing compared to the anchors i used to ride (which felt great at the time)
BITD <22lb would have been ok ish for a road bike.

Give HQ Fibre a bell regarding a repair.