Like the title says, I crashed my carbon bike and now have a scuff on the fork and major paint chips (down to the resin) on the rear thru-axle.
The crash happened via frontal collision with a lantern while trying not to get run off the road by a passing vehicle. Since this was at an ascend I wasn’t going too fast (around 20 km/h, 12.5 mph)
I went frontally onto the lantern and over the bars. During the crash the bike seems to have flipped and hit the lantern with its back aswell (see picture 3).
No local bike shop wants to confirm or deny whether I can still ride it as they don’t want to take responsibility for maybe crashing or the fork failing.
Since I read a lot and carbon is basically super sturdy and doesn’t break easily and at the same time super brittle when hit the wrong way, I am not sure if my bike is now totaled or can still be ridden.
Maybe someone here can help me out!
Thanks a bunch!
by troublepickinganame
18 Comments
Looks fine to me, likely just paint damage.
Looks to just be paint damage. I’d sand it down flat and feather in the edges and then wipe it down and inspect. Run a cottonball over it all and see if it snags.
Pretty unlikely that you damaged it beyond cosmetically. Definitely the case in the rear by the axle. It’s harder to say with the fork. If it were me, I would do the coin test people talk about to see if it sounds different when tapping it, but forks are thick and sturdy and it’s probably just scuffed.
Ride at your own risk…but I personally wouldn’t be sweating it too much.
https://preview.redd.it/8go0b7yd30ag1.png?width=220&format=png&auto=webp&s=affb7605235bc1c5136dc961901c48ccbc0b6d2d
Damn how did u crash
🤣🤣
Are the handlebars carbon too? If so, unwrap the tape to inspect for cracks.
NEW BIKE DAY 🥳🎉
Full send. This bike is fine.
Watch the gcn video with the composites expert, he talks about crashes, tap test etc and it seems like very good advice.
100 fine mate, don’t worry
Surface scuffs. Got touch up paint?
Any bike shop outside the USA would tell you it’s nothing to worry about. It’s the claim culture that prevents ppl to give their professional opinion.
You guys need to stop thinking carbon fiber is porcelain.
Nah, just cosmetic.
Nah, probably nothing
That‘s the visible stuff. Who knows what‘s damaged inside.
Hope you’re doing fine. This might be just me since I had time in boatbuilding and training in wind turbine blade composite repairs – since it was big crash not knowing which part of bike hit where and with which force I’d be comfortable sanding down around “through axel” to expose carbon and inspecting for broken fibres. Later painting and varnishing. Guess you could rely on tap test as suggested by others but this way I’d be at rest that everything went well. Front fork seems to have missed a full on hit left only with surface scratches.