Unpopular opinion: I think the fear of carbon fiber is overblown

Last month, a customer brought in a carbon road bike with a small chip in the seatstay, and everyone in the shop said it was toast. I cleaned the area, inspected it under a bright light, and decided it was just the clear coat. A bit of epoxy and careful sanding saved him a $700 replacement. When do you guys actually decide a carbon frame is unsafe to ride?

2 comments

2 Comments

thead4419d ago

My buddy had a similar scare with his old carbon cross bike. He found a weird mark near the chainstay after a muddy race. The local shop wrote it off immediately, calling it a total loss. He took it to a specialist who did a proper tap test and used some kind of sound device. Turned out to be a deep scratch in the resin, not the actual fibers. A legit repair place fixed it for a couple hundred bucks and he's put thousands of miles on it since. The real danger seems to be with impact damage you can't see, like from a crash. If there's no soft spot or weird sound when you tap it, it's probably just a surface wound.

sage_lewis1018d ago

That tap test is a good first check, but it's not foolproof.