Toptubes are easily the most damage prone tube on a carbon fiber bike frame, and undoubtedly the repair request we receive the most. This Scott Addict came to us after our customer had dropped the bike and made a small ding which propogated up the toptube towards the headset, following a seam in the carbon fiber. As always, the first step of our repair process is material and damage removal. The video below demonstrates one of our repair technicians wet sanding off the damaged area. In order to create, we must first destroy.
We follow up this step by rebuilding the area across several steps, the most important being the exact matching of the previous carbon layup pattern. We layup the carbon and then send it to the oven for curing cycles.
The next steps are all finishing, ranging from wet-sanding off extra epoxy and resin to buffing the final clear coats. In between, we re-apply all directly-matched paint and graphics. These steps are a bit nerve racking for any mistake can be a critical failure of the entire process.
It’s a time consuming procedure, but ultimately an incredibly rewarding one! We love making people happy and keeping bikes out of landfills. Have a carbon fiber frame with a broken toptube? Fill out a repair request and get started on the process today!