[Vorash]

Just had a look at 1 of these bikes , full carbon frame but the frame as what i would describe as small bubbles on, they have 5 bikes all which have this strange looking marks on different places on each frame.
Gave them a poke and feel ok but just dont look right.

Any ideas as to what it is on the frame ?? :/

Topic

[Prime586]

The bikes were on clearance
The bikes were on clearance at £700 last year – I’m guessing the ones they have left are ones that have cosmetic blemishes. The bubbles could be air that was trapped in the clearcoat (2-pack epoxy, usually) when it was mixed/dispensed, or from the ‘degassing’ process when too heavy a coat or too many ‘wet’ coats have been laid down before the enough of the solvent has evaporated.

The other thing that causes bubbles in 2-pack clearcoats is if there is moisture or surface contamination trapped under the clear when it was sprayed, causing it to delaminate. This can also happen after an impact on the surface which is more of a worry, but an impact would leave a single mark rather than a number of smaller ones in the same area.

If they are small clear bubbles (or craters from burst bubbles) near the surface it will probably be from air or solvent escaping during the drying process. If they are larger, flatter opaque bubbles it will more likely be delamination of the clearcoat from contamination

The Ventura CP50 is made by the Taiwanese manufacturer Liyang (http://liyangbikes.com/tw/?page_id=191). The frame has been sold under a few different brands (with higher-level groupsets, wheels and finishing kit than the Argos version):

Carrera Virago
http://road.cc/content/review/52262-carrera-virago
They were sold by Halfords as a limited edition in 2012 in direct competiton with the carbon models in the Boardman range, and the bike was promoted in the ‘Tour De Francis’ ads during the 2012 TdF. The Carrera version had a Shimano 105 group, FSA Gossamer cranks and Mavic CXP22 wheels, The paint job is virtually the same as the CP50. I’ve got one of these that I bought as a unused bare frame off ebay and built it up myself.

Carraro 953 Valles
http://www.carrarocicli.com/index.htm?id_prod=189
An Italian brand, almost the same frame but it’s slighly different round the bottom bracket (it’s BB86 instead of BB30, and it uses a band-on front mech), The Carraro brand even uses the same font for their logo as Halfords use for Carrera!

Viner Fiesole
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.611921332176237.1073741829.610184285683275&type=1
I was at the Manchester Bike & Tri Show this weekend and they had one of these limited-edition models on the Planet X stand.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiM0D6TIEAACxy7.jpg:large
It’s a virtually identical frame, only with internal routing for the rear brake cable. According to the Viner Facebook page it comes from Dedacciai, but a check on their website doesn’t show a matching model in their regular range. Note how it says its only ‘painted and finished’ in Italy?

[James Warrener]

Had to google it..
Had to google it.. http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3324518.htm

[Author]

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