How to Fix Marcus’s Broken Carbon Bike Frame
We have received an interesting question from Marcus Durant; he has a BIG problem with his Felt carbon frame. He has his own idea n how to repair his broken frame; we have our reservations about his plan and give him another suggestion
Question: Hello- I just aquired a 2005 Felt F1C carbon frame. The tip of the left rear dropout has snapped off. I envision cutting the dropout off right at the ends of the tubes and installing a steel or alum dropout with short tube extensions which would slip over the previously cut tube ends and epoxying them in place. Does this sound feasible? Any better ideas?
Thanks for your advice
Marcus.
Hi Marcus,
That’s a terrible thing to happen to a new frame, you didn’t say how it came about that you broke a frame end off?
Your idea of gluing an alloy frame end into your frame is what a carbon frame builder/repairer would do, except they would use very special glue and a heat to make a very strong bond, a reliable repair. You need to remember that your life could depend on the repair, the frame breaks again on a fast descent and something terrible could happen, a crash that could cause you and your training partners to have to spend some time in hospital, or worse!
My suggestion would be to find a professional carbon repairer, there is not that many around and I don’t know where you live, but there are some very good ones. Calfee designs and Joe’s Bicycle in the US. For Britain you should check out the web-site framebuilders, here you will find a list of lots of frame builders and repairers, from this list you should find one near you. If you live somewhere else I suggest you ask your bike shop, they should be able to find a carbon repairer, but be careful to check out other work that they have done as you want to have a smooth job done, specially with carbon as a bad job could look terrible with bulky and cumbersome lumpy repair and need doing again or worse be unsafe, make sure you get a good and trustworthy repairer.
 A Calfee Repair |
Let me say again I really think this is a job for a professional repairer; you don’t want your frame to fall apart at an important or dangerous moment
