Carbon fork - possible crack.

Hey guys,

So yesterday morning I was riding to work, long story short a Taxi jumped on the brakes in front of me to get a passenger that he noticed late, I had little time to do much, over the bars, into the cab and bike went flying.

Bike took a hard knock on the front quick release, damaged the bearings which is an easy fix, I inspected the forks and found what looks like a hair line fracture. I don't know if this is a stress crack in the paint or if it is a crack in the carbon.

Is it ok to sand the paint back to see if the carbon is cracked ?

Cheers.. Ben.

i wouldn't like to ride with that fork on again. it looks like its structural, where the alloy dropout is fixed into the carbon. not worth risking your front teeth over

maybe wet and dry around the crack to see if it'sjust the paint cracking, however it does look shagged.

Shit nuts. Thanks guys, I'll try the wet and dry and peep under the paint, cant believe it was literally my 4th ride on this new build.

I'll post some pics when I rub it back.

Cheers guys.

Rule is with carbon, if you have to ask on a forum if it's safe or not to ride it again, you already know the answer.

DEAD - I would not use these ever again.

If the outside layer of paint is cracked, I dread to think lies underneath...

You can use it to true wheels or as a wall ornament.

Fu that. Do not ride

i wouldn't like to ride with that fork on again. it looks like its structural, where the alloy dropout is fixed into the carbon. not worth risking your front teeth over

the carbon fork leg should not catastrophically fail, carbon will go soft/bendy; as mrveg says the stress crack is where the drop out is bonded into the fork leg...it may be possible to repair this, worth asking around, maybe try Argos cycles in Bristol http://www.argoscycles.com/

is it a real 3t for or a chinesebay one?

new forks are cheaper than dental work

the carbon fork leg should not catastrophically fail, carbon will go soft/bendy; as mrveg says the stress crack is where the drop out is bonded into the fork leg...it may be possible to repair this, worth asking around, maybe try Argos cycles in Bristol http://www.argoscycles.com/

A fork going all softy and bendy while you are braking for a downhill corner. Sounds delightful. Or perhaps whilst changing direction on a busy roundabout.
Whatever it won't be pretty or pleasant.
It might be repairable, but for the price of a new one it isn't worth it.

is it a real 3t for or a chinesebay one?

Hey Dan, they are Chinese. Carbon steerer, Carbon dropouts, carbon fork.

Update, I hit the forks with some wet and dry, first on the side where there was a split in the paint, after rubbing back there appeared to be a seam where the dropouts were bonded to the fork then sealed with resin and rubbed back to a smooth finish.

If this were the case there would be a seam on the opposite side, so I rubbed back the fork above the other dropout and sure enough there was a matching seam.

The split in the paint occurred directly over the seam, so to double check, I bound the forks at the dropouts with some zip-ties and pulled them together to see if the seam separated under tension.

There doesn't appear to be any flexing, the seams seem very solid. I'm thinking that the paint might have had a weaker adhesion to the resin seam than it did to the carbon fork.. So when the hard knock happened it may have split the paint at that weak spot. I'm gonna ride them again and do the same check after a short ride.

i would put a smear of melted candle wax over it, just so if any undue flex appears in that spot it should make a crack in the wax and clearly show whats going on.

You know what.... In this situation, just ask Indra... He will tell you, and show you what happens to crabon forks"..

Better safe than sorry, they're the chinese ones so it's unlikely you payed more than £75 for them, don't risk ya neck.

I had forks fail, it was horrible, ended up with spokes going through my calf and a rotten concussion.

Has the forum ever held a scar competition?
Hoping to meet Jonny Hoogerland next week
Still think ive got him beat on the scar tissue front not sure about Indra..

Haha the marks are really small, just 3 little round scars left.

Back to helping Berg (i fucking hate taxi drivers)
I got some second hand forks from my 2005 Felt F55
They are in fair condition considering the age.
Let me know if interested .. tbh ive no idea what if anything they're worth.

Fork: Felt 1.3 High Modulus Carbon Design, Carbon Blades, Crown & 1-1/8" Steerer, Aluminum Dropouts w/Felt Compression Device

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies, tommy, cheers for the offer, I'm actually living in Singapore so I think the shipping would cost more than the forks are worth, but after hearing about Indra's misfortune with the spokes through the calf and concussion, I think the best option is to get new forks, there is a really good 2nd hand market here with unused forks popping up all the time, I'll find something there.

Yeah and taxi drivers, I think its something in their genes, Assholes no matter where they are in the world.