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I have an older model 2014 Planet X Pro Carbon bike and it fell sideways landing against a wooden pillar causing some damage to the top tube, the damage is about 2.5 cm in length but I am having difficulty establishing what damage has been caused due to the raw finish, if it was painted over first maybe there may be more indication. Is anyone familiar with this type of frame finish. I know it is never an exact science with these things. It still feels ok generally the same as the rest of the frame.
I have put a picture up to show this.
carbon is generally easier to see when a gloss finish. In work, parts usually come out of moulds fairly dull (unless its an alloy mould), so to check weave distortion or deficiencies we quite often use hand sanitiser as a make-shift clear coat.
so dollop some of that on the area and it should give you a clearer view of the carbon. I would be surprised if it had caused any damage to the actual weave (from your description of the incident). And if so, i suspect it would be the surface ply, so no structural issue.
I think the top layer on frames you can see the weave like this is a mostly cosmetic layer.
Weave isn't as uniform or neat as this in the sub layers!!!
Having said that it will still add strength.
I would ride it as is and keep an eye on it.
Or you could DIY repair by removing any loose bits and use a kit like this to add a layer:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/173961646294
from the image, i wouldnt personally worry about that.
looks like a few fibres from the surface ply and the matt finish clear coat over the top.
you could igve it a light sand to clean it up a bit, but be aware you will go through the matt clear coat too, so it might be cleaner, but look worse.
As mentioned, you could resin fill it, but again, you will lose the paint finish.
but ultimately. ride on!
I'll be that if you press on that crack, you get some deflection.
Carbon is laid up in layers, whilst this might be a cosmetic top layer, it still serves a structural purpose and is still bonded to the layers below with the epoxy pentrating all the layers.
It's not like an independent pretty facing laid over top after the frame was made.
So, its broken and needs repairing.
You would want to remove material where it's cracked and keep removing until there is no crack or separated layers left. I'm pretty sure by this point you'll have a hole all the way through the tube.
It can then be repaired.
There's every chance you could repair with a circumferential wrap of carbon (in addition to smaller layers at the broken area) that once finished gives zero additional build up of surface, but it depends how much Dremel work you're prepared to do to remove the failed portion and the outer layer around the tube.
Some great diy kits available and if you decide to tackle this, don't forget your ppe (n99 respirator)
Thanks for the suggestion and advice so far on this. I have pressed the area and it still reacts firmly with no extra flex, the photo I attached is double zoomed in, I have out another up taken with flash from the side. When there is a lot of light on it via flash or bright torch it appears almost translucent (is the a clear coat type pain over the carbon, the chips seem to have taken some sort of coating off it seems and then gone maybe a mm or so further in but not what I would say a crack, just a jagged scrape I think?
" alt="flash frame" />
This is the best image I can get where it appears to show the two levels of damage, am I right in thinking it has took the outer coat and then the actual carbon outer surface away slightly in what looks like chips from this image, the word crack strikes fear that it is indeed broken?
" alt="Close up showing layers" />
Not just a scrape imo as it follow the direction of the weave.
The 2nd photo looks less worse than the first to be fair.
Add edit: 3rd photo still suggests a failure in that layer to me.