Hey everyone,
I’m currently on a long bikepacking trip and just noticed that the inside of my carbon fork has been sanded down by mud and small gravel.
The paint and resin are gone, and I can see bare carbon (black, matte texture).
No crash just abrasion from riding in muddy conditions.
I still have about 1400 km to go before getting home.
Has anyone ridden safely with similar damage?
by -Rayan-k
5 Comments
I don’t personally have any experience with carbon however I imagine this would be just fine. You’ve lost a very small amount of material. I will say that you should go down a tire size when you’re able to
Something very similar happened to mine. You have caught it in time. It is important to find out exactly what caused it. Are your tyres possible too wide for your fork? Is there play in the wheel that causes it rub? (That was the case with mine) Or perhaps lack of spoke tension is causing the rim to flex and rub? It could just be mud, but I’m guessing there would have to be like a lot to cause this. In any case, slap some top coat nail varnish and maybe see about some helicopter tape.
https://preview.redd.it/thb5b3a725wf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30789a395a764c26997fd68bac8e7dd5fc0e5b80
A picture of mine for reference.
My CX bikes have ton of carbon showing from abrasion since years in different places. I personally didn’t bother, but you can put a bit of paint or nail polish to seal the carbon again if you want after your trip. Might not be a bad idea if your bike is gonna see salty roads at some point, in theory salt crystals can grow in the porosities of the carbon and damage it
This doesn’t look concerning (yet) but it is a concern how this is happening: tire too large? I’d suggest adding some makeshift protection (helicopter tape or aluminum can “mini fender” stuck in place using 3m double sided tape) to protect the carbon from further damage.
I had this happen on chain stays, and I painted some nail polish in the sanded spots thinking that if I kept my eye on it and didn’t see any cracking within the nail polish that it was probably good to go. A year later no cracks, no problems.