Hey cyclists!
Tldr: should I be worried about this crack on frame or it's just looking ugly? Anything I can do to cover it?
My story:
It's my first carbon bike (Trek Domane) and I kept it in the appartement to keep it safe…
Bike was standing in the bedroom next bookshelf and close to bed. My gf was reaching for a book and bike fell side way on the corner of wooden frame of the bed. It was not far, from standing to maybe 45 degree lean on bed. When I picked it up I notice this crack on my carbon frame.
Should I be worried about it? Can I cover/paint it somehow? I'm not stressing about look but about safety.
I know that carbon is supposed to be fragile but wtf? Now I'm worried to touch the bike to not make more scratches 😅
by No_Money315
5 Comments
I’m not a professional, but that looks like paint chips to me.
I just want to make it clear though that this sounds to be entirely a result of poor placement in your home, putting an expensive and known fragile item such that someone needs to reach through or around it to get things is what caused the bump
Looks like a paint chip. Knock around with a coin or press with your finger and see if there are differences in sound/hardness.
But all these posts are doing a terrible job of convincing me to ever get a carbon frame. Which is odd, since I have carbon forks on 3/7 bikes.
Paint chip, but do a coin sound check to confirm
I do aerospace composites. It looks like just a pain chip. Composites are tougher than you think and most people overreact. Sure you can tap it with a coin to see if it’s delaminated but it’s doubtful you did anything but scratch the paint that is way softer than the frame. Trek uses carbon fiber resin that’s not sensitive to UV damage, so you don’t even need to touch it up actually.
Paint chip. If it bothers you could do white nail polish and varnish as a cheap option.
Pretty unlucky to get such a chip from the bike just falling over.