I crashed my beloved Ti bike (3/2) because some jerk in an ambulance decided to freak me out with the siren as he passed me (no I guess he couldn't have it on all the way down and only turned it on as he passed me on a narrow bridge).
Anyway, I'm ok and the bike wasn't in bad shape. It was on hard concrete and there's a tiny dent (~1mm in diameter, not that deep) in the back triangle fork about have way down.
My carbon front fork also had a small scratch. Doesn't seem to be dented that much and hardly noticable. I was able to sand both down until I could hardly feel them. I know this now was a bad idea since I'm just losing more material but seemed like a good idea at the time and gives you an idea that it wasn't very deep at all.
I got some scrapes on the rear derailleur, shifters and crank but nothing so hard that it needed replacement or even real readjustment. Kind of an eye sore but manageable.
How concerned should I be about the frame or the fork breaking suddenly while on a ride? I went for a 20mile ride and didn't notice any problems. Should I see an eventual crack form if it does break or will the whole thing explode and leave me in the hospital?
Just post your replies here for everyone's benefit. Thanks.
Check your fork before and after every ride for stress cracks. A single scratch into the epoxy layer of the material is all it takes for CF to rapidly devlop stress cracks at that point. CF is after all a cloth, that is in layers all held together with epoxy resin. It's the layering that gives it it's tensile strength, and the epoxy that give it it's rigidity.
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Quoted message said:
I crashed my beloved Ti bike (3/2) because some jerk in an ambulance decided to freak me out with the siren as he passed me (no I guess he couldn't have it on all the way down and only turned it on as he passed me on a narrow bridge).
Anyway, I'm ok and the bike wasn't in bad shape. It was on hard concrete and there's a tiny dent (~1mm in diameter, not that deep) in the back triangle fork about have way down.
My carbon front fork also had a small scratch. Doesn't seem to be dented that much and hardly noticable. I was able to sand both down until I could hardly feel them. I know this now was a bad idea since I'm just losing more material but seemed like a good idea at the time and gives you an idea that it wasn't very deep at all.
I got some scrapes on the rear derailleur, shifters and crank but nothing so hard that it needed replacement or even real readjustment. Kind of an eye sore but manageable.
How concerned should I be about the frame or the fork breaking suddenly while on a ride? I went for a 20mile ride and didn't notice any problems. Should I see an eventual crack form if it does break or will the whole thing explode and leave me in the hospital?
Just post your replies here for everyone's benefit. Thanks.
I crashed my beloved Ti bike (3/2) because some jerk in an ambulance decided to freak me out with the siren as he passed me (no I guess he couldn't have it on all the way down and only turned it on as he passed me on a narrow bridge). Anyway, I'm ok and the bike wasn't in bad shape. It was on hard concrete and there's a tiny dent (~1mm in diameter, not that deep) in the back triangle fork about have way down. My carbon front fork also had a small scratch. Doesn't seem to be dented that much and hardly noticable. I was able to sand both down until I could hardly feel them. I know this now was a bad idea since I'm just losing more material but seemed like a good idea at the time and gives you an idea that it wasn't very deep at all.
I got some scrapes on the rear derailleur, shifters and crank but nothing so hard that it needed replacement or even real readjustment. Kind of an eye sore but manageable.
How concerned should I be about the frame or the fork breaking suddenly while on a ride? I went for a 20mile ride and didn't notice any problems. Should I see an eventual crack form if it does break or will the whole thing explode and leave me in the hospital?
Just post your replies here for everyone's benefit. Thanks.
You should be fine. Crashes happen. Small dents aren't going to hurt anything on the frame -- the fork could be more of a risk if it was cracked in a highly stressed area, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Remember, mountain bikes get crashed hundreds of times, and their tubing isn't all that different from road bikes. They can take crashes ;-)
How concerned should I be about the frame or the fork breaking suddenly while on a ride? I went for a 20mile ride and didn't notice any problems. Should I see an eventual crack form if it does break or will the whole thing explode and leave me in the hospital?
Just my opinions, based on largely inadequate information...
Frame: Probably no concern at all. It's hard to say with certainty, by my guess from this distance is that you can probably ride it without hazard.
Fork: Watch for crazing of the resin in the area that was sanded, and inspect for any unusual flexing until you're comfortable...or replace it if you're not. Carbon may give little or no warning of failure, just like steel, aluminum, or anything else. The caveat here is that fork failures tend to be harder to deal with, and are more likely to cause a serious crash, than frame failures. If the crash didn't involve a headlong impact into a fixed object with you aboard the bike, and if the fork wasn't subject to being run over by something large and heavy while the bike was down, the chances are good that the fork has not been overstrained...but you will only find out for sure *if* it fails. -- Typoes are a feature, not a bug. Some gardening required to reply via email. Surrealism is a pectinated ranzel.
