Here at Ruckus, we personally think every bike is worth saving. Most often, even with older frames such as this carbon fiber Specialized Roubaix, repair is still going to fall below the price point of replacement. Furthermore, nothing can replace the memories and great times directly related to the time spent on the bike. So when this showed up with some slight damage on the seat tube, we were more than happy to return it to service for our customer.
First things first. We ultrasound scanned several areas on the bike that we thought to be suspect. Through this process, we are able to gain an entire perspective of the wall thickness and layup structure of the frame, gathering depth-sample populations from non-damaged areas. We then took those measurements and compared them with the damaged seat tube, finding that, indeed there was cracked carbon and delaminated layers in that area. It was a small, dime-sized area of damage, so we quickly put it through the Ruckus process.
Our customer was concerned about the cost of repair, so they asked us to only repair and repaint the damaged areas. One area we found was a moderate patch of chain suck on the drive side chainstay. With carbon, looks can be deceiving and there is also so much more than meets the naked eye. So we took the thickness measurement from the opposite side of the frame and compared it to the area of chain suck. What we found was no real damage, just some superficial paint removal.
This machine allows us to eliminate all guess work in our repair process, both being able to accurately diagnose real damages vs paint blemishes, potentially saving our customers (you) time and money. So, we cleaned up the area and added heavy clearcoat over the paint removed area for extra UV protection.
All said and done, we were able to expedite the repair process and save our customer and money using our ultrasound technology. That’s why we always say “better service through science”. Have an old bike that needs a facelift? Send it our way.