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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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CBR CARBON REPAIR AND RE-SPRAY

June 2014 review: With our current work load the demands on our efficiency is being tested. We first and foremost will not compromise on the safety of any repair or quality of a custom spray. Our credibility and guarantees are attached to each component that leaves our service centre.

Thank you to our customers for your patience as we scale up safely and without impact on our schedules and prices. They don’t teach that at school!

CycleTechReview wrote an article on CBR this month: ‘Carbon Bike Repair Dorking’

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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: 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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A FRAGILE SUBJECT

With carbon fiber as the worlds most abundant element in today’s race ready frames you would think that everyone would be happy….. but there is a problem. We see this ‘problem’ a lot in our line of work. The ‘problem’ is understanding and maintaining carbon fiber bikes and wheels.

In essence your carbon bike is a ‘Formula1’ race car. You don’t see one down the local garage do you? This is a crazy situation we find ourselves in as some customers ignore the instruction manuals and torque wrench settings supplied by the manufacturer.  In some cases the manufacturer might not be as effective in conveying the fragility element of carbon frames to avoid alarm!  Who knows but it is costing the industry and consumers more then they bargained for in my opinion.

UCI competition rules require the pro peloton ride only commercially available bikes. This is great for the amateur market to indulge in but a warranty nightmare for the manufacturers who’s customers, many of which, simply don’t understand how to handle such a fragile machine.

Manufacturers, on behalf of their customers, can benefit from reputable carbon repair specialists for 3 good reasons:

1. Maintaining brand loyalty from non-warranty claims .

2. Borderline warranty inspections to resolve conflict.

3. Fracture feedback on problematic frames.

By endorsing a carbon repair service in some cases will make warranty claims less fraught. Just having the choice will benefit everyone.

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CUSTOM SPECIALIZED VENGE AND P3 RESPRAY

More Venge’s. Didn’t know there were that many! Some customers look to CBR to custom spray new designs. No small task if you know the value of these frames.

At last the P3 is getting its first base coat. It has taken a while to get to this frame again as it is not a priority repair but I am looking forward to proving that it is fully competitive again.

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SEAT STAY

Got this Cube Litening that had a side impact. The seat stay was broken off at the top and bottom of the chain stay. The seat stay piece was also snapped into two pieces. The first job was to align the broken parts together with a strong epoxy on the frame itself. Once cured in perfect alignment the repair could begin. Each break was rebuilt with 5 layups of different CF weave to ensure stiffness. In this case I resprayed the repair.

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BRAKING SURFACE

Another sad but all too typical worn brake tracks on perfectly good wheels. It’s a time consuming job to ensure the re-build is flush, level and can withstand high heat and abrasion. Don’t ask what I use…it’s not off-the-shelf epoxy.

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WHEELS

I was sent a set of Bontrager 700’s that had melted down an Alpine run. The rear wheel profile was deformed from the incorrect pads and brake surface was de-laminated. Luckily the wheel was still true so I took on the project.

Firstly the profile had to be reset by creating a mold of the correct profile. After cutting away the damaged area I rebuilt the wheel and brake surface. It is important to get the weight the same so there is no bias to a heaver side. The wheels are as good as new.

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