Was doing some maintenance on my carbon gravel bike and noticed a small crack on the bottom end of the headtube. Tried to look at it from under and on the inside, but didn’t see any damage. Seems solid but I really cannot know.
Bike has been ridden quite a lot for the last 4 years, and I have been regularly doing maintenance myself. Never been in a big crash.
Would you bring it in for someone professional to look at it?
by boenna69
11 Comments
It’s hard to tell from the photos whether it’s just a crack in the paint or through the carbon. If you don’t see any hint of damage from the inside, I wouldn’t worry about it. I have seen superficial stress cracks in carbon frames that never got any worse. It never hurts, though, to let a bike shop take a look at it.
Looks like it might just be the paint. Doesn’t hurt to take it to a LBS to have a look
I had a carbon frame replaced for something similar. Even before they concluded it was broken, he explained that while you might get harmless paint cracks on the parts of the frame that flex, something is usually going on inside when something solid like the head tube is deforming enough to crack the paint.
I would 100% contact the manufacturer and also ask someone to check it out in person.
Actually in my case they sent me a new frame as soon as they saw the pictures I emailed them. I have to assume they had a good reason to take it so seriously. And yours looks like the scene of an accident compared to what my frame had.
Headtubes are usually super rigid.
Something scary going on if it has flexed enough to crack the paint. Get a local professional to inspect.
See if you can feel the crack from the inside. Most likely just paint.
There is a simple test you can do. Take a quarter lightly tap little bit away from crack and then by the crack, see if it changes sound.
I would err on the side of caution with anything on the front end.
If you aren’t sure, don’t ride it until you can be sure. I can’t see what you’d do to be sure it’s ok.
Is there anything pressed in there on the lower headset race? Could it have been misaligned? Or perhaps a metal insert or headset race itself corroding? That or a particularly heavy landing are my best bet.
4 years? Sounds like a great time to warranty the frame and get a new one. Not worth taking a chance on riding it if it is in fact the beginning of a crack. If the head tube fails while riding that would result in a lot of hurt.
Thanks for your answers. Not sure why people are downvoting this post (?)
Sent a mail to the manufacturer as none of the LBS in my area do carbon checks.
Yeah, looks like a pretty solid crack unfortunately! Trek Session 9.9s were doing this a few years ago when they were made in the US. Can’t say I’ve seen many others. Reach out to the manufacturer or a shop that sells the brand. I wouldn’t be riding it that’s for sure!
Basically it needs to be tig welded or it will continue to crack. You need to drill a small hole on each end of the crack, bevel out the crack and tig weld it at low amps and try not to distort the tube. If not of that is possible, JB weld.