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WINTER CARBON BIKING – IS IT BAD?

I don’t know about you but I like riding my favorite bike whatever the weather.

There is a lot of misinformation regarding winter damage to carbon frames. Whether it is winter or summer you still need to keep your bike clean. If you leave ingress on the bike after a wet ride then that can eventually cause problems. It is not only specific to winter.

Granted grit is only used in the cold months but as long as you are sweating over your frame on the turbo you are doing the same as you would on a winter ride. Wash it down and get the salts off. Salt eats at the cable stops and gets under the lacquer where is it damaged but it can’t really penetrate directly through lacquer or carbon itself.

The group set is likely to experience more moisture in winter then in summer but again, if you lube the chain correctly and clean the bike when you are done it should be fine! Wash it down while it is still wet and get some WD40 or GT85 or whatever brand you use onto the moving parts. You can spray some onto a clean cloth and wipe the frame down but don’t leave it wet. Use common sense!

So ride the bike that you love unless you like punishing yourself on a rubbish frame so you ride with wings in the warmer months….. fair enough but well maintained carbon bikes are fine in all weathers.

Thanks for your support and endorsement. It has been a fantastic year.

Merry Christmas and a good cycling New Year from us all at CBR!

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EXPANDING SPRAY TEAM AT CBR

CBR welcomes Pierangelo Lorenzi to the spray team. Piero sprayed for Pelizzoli bikes in Italy amongst others. He brings excellent skills to our custom portfolio and restoration. Our pledge is to deliver faster lead times to our consistency and high standards which we are known for.

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CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Just wanted to drop you a quick line to say THANK YOU for the amazing job you’ve done on my bike!

After
the incident, I thought she had to be scrapped and I was gutted at the
thought of it; especially as the bike was only 2 weeks old when it was
reversed over by a crazy truck driver.

These
last few months, I had become somewhat disconnected from the whole
situation whilst waiting for the insurance to pay out and then, for you
to repair and restore the bike back to new. However, I was pleasantly
surprised at my own reaction when picking it up yesterday afternoon: as soon as I stepped out of your office, I got straight back on the saddle and it was as if no time had passed.

Words
cannot express how happy and grateful I’m for restoring my bike back to
its originally glorious state; and I cannot wait to create new memories
with it as I venture back out on the roads!

Yours Faithfully, Tania
P.S. Please see attached photo!

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IT’S NO JOKE

Carbon repair on a bicycle is no joke. Your life is in the repairers hands. For goodness sake go and see the carbon repairer and see for yourself what work they do. Do they offer any guarantees?

Some claim they have F1 or aerospace routes using the latest space age carbon and technology – Bollocks

Carbon bicycle repair requires:

  1. Experience of your specific carbon bike’s construction.
  2. The specific assembly process for each brand where possible.
  3. Each brands paint colour, decal and finishing process.

Safe repair can only be achieved by brand endorsement, evidence of investment and reputation.

Next time you descend on a ride ask yourself can you be happy with anything less?

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CLAMPING PROBLEMS ON CARBON DROP-OUTS

In my opinion a carbon drop-out is a vulnerable and silly design for a modern frame.  You might already be aware that I don’t like this design. It might keep the pros happy but we can’t chuck our frames away as readily.

Carbon is prone to abrasion. Particularly when the other half of the mating face is of a different material. The skewer will bite well into the drop-out but is VERY dependent on the amount of pressure applied to clamp it. It needs to be over-clamped (within reason) as opposed to under clamped to hold firm. Under compression the carbon drop-out is super strong as these parts are injection moulded and can withstand the pressure well enough.
Alloy drop-outs do not suffer the same degradation. Alloy is more forgiving in most respects. I assume the carbon design is to satisfy the weight saving efforts of the manufacturer even though the alternative is bleak when it fails.
If the skewer is not sufficiently clamped, the drive side face of a carbon drop-out receives excessive abrasion laterally by the pedal motion of the drive side pulling the wheel back and forth.
If it were an alloy drop-out this would not be as badly affected but with carbon drop-outs they give way to excessive wear. I will go so far as to say that ALL bikes should have removable alloy dropouts. (I hear loud cheers!) The weight increase is marginal and you don’t need to replace the whole frame!
We see many such problems. You can see how this is remedied here at CBR with an embedded alloy face 🙂
Shouldn’t this be the norm if you must have a carbon drop-out?
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RECENT WORK: CUSTOM BIKE RESPRAYS AND RESTORATION

Here with a Venge being prepped, base coated and cured for custom livery. We don’t spray over the old decals. It all needs to be hand stripped to carbon to ensure the best finish and adhesion.

BMC Time Machine restoration of the top tube. We laser cut our own decals and colour match paints. With the amount of variation we see every day we have good knowledge of the paint processes of most manufacturers.

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RECENT WORK: ZIPP 404 CARBON REPAIRS

We have seen a number of 404’s this month with similar fractures. This is a pre-finished example of a ‘near spoke pull-through’

Back on the road for a fraction of the price of a replacement 🙂

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RECENT WORK: STORK AND CUBE CARBON REPAIRS

BB’s can fracture in many different locations. So far we have repaired just about every manufacturer brand on the market.

All repairs are re-sprayed at customers request either as a complimentary block colour or total restoration depending on requirements. These are pre-finished examples.

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RECENT WORK: FRACTURED MTB BB REPAIRS IN CARBON

LaPierre and S-Works rear triangle mounting fractures. We have noticed some weak spots in some MTB designs. When they fracture it is a good opportunity to put them right!

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RECENT WORK: SPECIALIZED TOP TUBE HOLE REPAIR

It doesn’t really matter how bad the fracture is. We can repair and restore the colours and details as per the original. This bike had another unrelated crash a week after the repair. Ah well they are meant to be ridden!

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