While I have not posted anything of it, most of you who follow me on Strava or read this blog will know that on the 29th of December, 2012 I suffered my second crash for the calendar year and given it put me off the bike for the following week, it was certainly going to be my last one of the year. Of course, I've made a new year's resolution to ensure I keep the bike rubber side down for at least the duration of 2013 and preferably well beyond. The result of the crash was a fractured left seat stay and minor weave fractures in the top tube of the bike frame while personally, it was bruising to the pelvis and surrounding soft tissue, my fair share of bruised ribs and at least one fractured rib as a result of cleaning up a damned solid piece of kerb at 45km/h!
Coming up to four weeks since the crash, I can report that I have recovered swiftly with only slight discomfort in the first floating rib on the left side if I really push the limits with some big gear sprinting. As for the bike, I could possibly have pushed for a warranty replacement of the frame as there was no apparent external impact and looked more like a stress fracture than an impact fracture, I decided not to send the frame to Melbourne for closer inspection and opted instead to go for a frame repair.
With a bit of research into the process of repairing carbon frames, I was pleased to find out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so. I had heard that there are considerable concerns about riding on a repaired frame let alone racing on one but from what I could ascertain, this is just unproven gossip by people who have not taken the time to understand the process and how good the result can be.
So I began to look around for local repair businesses and came across a few in Perth including Quantum Bicycles in North Perth operated by Aldo Contarino, Carbon Cycle Repairs in Bibra Lake operated by Glen Oldfield and CarbonWorks in Swan View operated by Richard Pearce. All three of these businesses come highly regarded around Perth, each sporting there own experience and qualification in the carbon game.
Quantum Bicycles came highly regarded for the finishing of their work on frame repairs and numerous people I conversed with had suggested that it was impossible to tell a frame repaired here had even been through the process. However, some people had also suggested that the turn around time for the repair could be quite lengthy. I suspect that this would most likely be due to the amount of work that they have at a given time and may not always be the case.
Carbon Cycle Repairs had great testimonials on their website from numerous prominent bike shops around Perth and I had even uncovered some reviews from people interstate who had sent frames over for repair. Glen has had considerable experience in working with composite materials ranging from bike repairs through to working on projects in aerospace for the Australian Air Force. Additionally, he has worked in Formula 1 for McLaren.
I could not find out much about CarbonWorks other than what was reported on their website. Richard too had worked for McLaren in Formula 1 and has had considerable experience working with composite materials. Like Glen's work, the before and after shots of Richard's work looked fantastic.
In the end, I decided to take the frame down to Glen at Carbon Cycle Repairs due to his extensive experience in other fields, including aerospace where stresses on carbon fibre projects would be quite considerable compared to what might be inflicted on a bicycle. If it's good enough for the Department of Defence, it's good enough for me.
Glen was fantastic to talk to and after contacting him initially by email, I followed up with a quick phone call and I had the frame down to him the next day for inspection. I could immediately tell I had made the right choice as he went over the frame scrutinising every single mark it had on it and was quickly able to identify the two problem spots - one far less obvious than the other. He was even able to pick up the difference between actual fractures on the carbon fibre versus simple blemishes in the paint work without having to resort to X-ray analysis.
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Like most repair places, they prefer to have the bike stripped down to just the frame so that none of the components are damaged during the repair processes which, in Glen's case, included heat-based curing. Glen was up-front with his "estimate" of cost (which turned out to be completely accurate) and ran me through the process of what would take place and what my options were in relation to repainting. He was also up-front about the resulting repairs possibly being noticeable to a well-trained eye.
So I took the bike with me again to begin the stripping down process which I figured I should start with the cranks. This proved to be a bit of an exercise as the cranks (being the Breakaway Infocrank power meter) had well and truly jammed into the bottom bracket bearings. I had stopped in at Garlands to see if Nick had a tool that we could use to get the crank out and we found that the crank spindle refused to budge beyond around 10-15mm out of the bottom bracket bearings. We were both getting a little nervous about trying to do this with a padded mallet so I opted to take the frame up to Breakaway to see if they had a special means of removing the cranks. My guess was that given the horribly hot day it was that day, it was likely that the crank spindle had expanded and wedged itself in well and truly.
Mordy was happy to take a look (very grateful to him) and after trying a padded mallet as well, it was clear there was no way it was coming out using this method. Thankfully, Breakaway are an ingenious lot (they are engineers after all) and had the necessary equipment to apply even force to just the cranks and not the frame. The first of these came in the form of a 10 tonne press!! With a bit of ad-hoc bracket modelling, we were able to insert the bracket in such a way that the press would only apply force to the cranks and we began to slowly apply pressure.
The crank began to move through the bearings with a "pop" as it moved slightly each time we applied a bit more pressure. Slowly but surely the bottom bracket bearings were releasing the hold they had on the crank spindle and eventually it released completely and we were able to remove it. While this had not caused any damage to anything, we found that one of the bearings was able to be removed by hand while the other was wedged into the bottom bracket of the frame. This proved a little more difficult to remove as there was not much surface area on the bearing when coming at it from the opposite side of the frame.
Thankfully, after some nifty engineering on the metal lathe, we fashioned a tool that allowed us to comfortably insert it into the bottom bracket and again use the 10 tonne press to gently push the bearing out of the frame. Handy people to know these guys at Breakaway. With the crank out and the power meter having already proved faulty, I left the cranks with them and went on my way for home to begin stripping down the remaining components on the bike. The process took no more than 1 hour and I had the bike down to just its frame and I rewarded it with a quick cleaning with Mr. Sheen. Great stuff - came up a treat!
I dropped the frame down to Glen the next morning and 2 weeks later, I have the frame back completely repaired with no obvious evidence of the job being done. The finished product is incredible and the paint work meticulous.
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As you can see from the "after" images, it's difficult to tell where the repair had been done. The photos don't really provide a means of inspecting the job up close but that's just it, it can't be seen in the photos because it can't be seen using the naked eye. I was especially impressed with the repair that was done to the top tube whereby the "Specialized" decal is as perfect as the original.
Those with keen eyes will notice from the above photos that the bike has been reassembled. With Nick and his team just having received a "ship load" of bikes in boxes at the shop, it made it difficult for them to look at reassembly before Saturday but Nick was more than happy to allow me to come in to the shop at any time to do the job myself with expert guidance if necessary. Given the number of bikes they had to assemble and a board load full of services and repairs, it wouldn't have bothered Nick if I was there with him until the late hours of the night.
I'm more than impressed with the job done on the frame and I would strongly recommend to anyone in a similar position to consider doing the same. I'm also convinced that I can revive the Giant frame and bring a bike I had considered written off back into the stable.
So the Venge (and body) is ready to go back into action just in time for this weekend's Australia Day Criteriums. The plan is basically to improve on last year's result by winning the event. Big ask but that's the plan and I'm sticking to it. Hopefully the training I have done since the accident will hold me in enough stead to achieve my goal for the weekend.
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