I bought this Madone used in really great condition, but I only recently noticed damage to the fork pictured. It seems to come from over-rotation and striking the aero fairing of the down tube. I did some reading and it seems this likely happened because I’m missing some stopper to prevent the fork from rotating that far.
Anyway does anyone else have experience with this and any idea whether it’s still safe to ride? I’m hoping maybe the trek engineers accounted for this possibility and made this part of the fork purely for aerodynamics and not actually structural :/
by adverbs_bonnets
3 Comments
You’re not missing a stopper it’s just how the frame is unfortunately designed. Unpopular opinion but I’d keep
Riding that
I have the same damage on mine. I’m not missing a part, it’s just a poor design and super common on this bike.
Took it to trek and their mechanic said it was surface level and no reason for concern structurally. Hard to tell how deep the gash is in yours, but you could take to a trek shop and ask their opinion.
I filled in the damage on mine with a baking soda and epoxy mix and carefully sanded it down flush. Then had the trek shop dab some paint on it. Now it looks good as new!
It’s fine. You can buy the part that stops it from happening. It’s plastic and breaks sometimes so replacing it will prevent further damage. But it’s a beefy section of the fork and doesn’t pose a threat other than cosmetic for now.