Interesting article and unsurprising findings. Design matters most; materials not much.
It would be great to see an article about real-world frame repair. It's often assumed that carbon can't be repaired, but after a major crash into a pile of rocks on Cypress broke a Scott Genius seat stay \(not severed, but crushed from impact\), Roberts Composites did a beautiful repair for $300, replacing the damaged section-- pretty cheap, and fast. No further issues.
After a decade on \(mostly burly\) carbon frames, with many crashes and impacts, that's still the only breakage I've seen. \(Let's forget the early carbon XC dualies, Trek.\) Carbon can be very repairable, just like any composite boat, auto panel, etc, and we should stop assuming that it's fragile and can't be fixed.
What would it cost to repair a bent/broken aluminum stay; could it even be repaired; where in the real world would you take it for repair; how long would it take? My Cove Hummer frame \(Ti\) broke at the downtube/head tube weld and into the downtube; Cove sent the frame back to Lynskey for \(warranty\) repair, where the broken tube was removed and replaced. And everyone knows you can have steel repaired; but where; what limits; how much?
May 22, 2018, 10:47 a.m. - kaesy
Interesting article and unsurprising findings. Design matters most; materials not much. It would be great to see an article about real-world frame repair. It's often assumed that carbon can't be repaired, but after a major crash into a pile of rocks on Cypress broke a Scott Genius seat stay \(not severed, but crushed from impact\), Roberts Composites did a beautiful repair for $300, replacing the damaged section-- pretty cheap, and fast. No further issues. After a decade on \(mostly burly\) carbon frames, with many crashes and impacts, that's still the only breakage I've seen. \(Let's forget the early carbon XC dualies, Trek.\) Carbon can be very repairable, just like any composite boat, auto panel, etc, and we should stop assuming that it's fragile and can't be fixed. What would it cost to repair a bent/broken aluminum stay; could it even be repaired; where in the real world would you take it for repair; how long would it take? My Cove Hummer frame \(Ti\) broke at the downtube/head tube weld and into the downtube; Cove sent the frame back to Lynskey for \(warranty\) repair, where the broken tube was removed and replaced. And everyone knows you can have steel repaired; but where; what limits; how much?