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Smashing my carbon fibre bike - getting a repair quote for the insurance

Poor kid jumped out in front of me and we both went flying. (I'm happy the kid is ok as it was quite a bad one, replace bikes but not people!)

Good thing I was going slow as an easy relaxing ride 14mph.

So now my carbon bike creaked home, rear hanger totally misaligned, headset creaking, shifting hitting the rear spokes...rival lever pivot hanging on just. Fork with bubbling under the paint.

Will the frame be ok? I rang some shops to book it in and they said it will be fine.

How do they know without seeing into the frame???

What a beautiful accident ridden sunny day!

Twisted my knee and sprained my ankle but MTFU and resting. Just glad the kid is ok and no broken ankle etc.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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12 comments

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Fish_n_Chips | 14 years ago
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I crashed a carbon frame and my bike insurance paid out and I used the carbon with some patch work and use it as my turbo trainer!

I wouldn't trust it on the road and the fork was split.

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synery_1234 | 14 years ago
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Hello,

Youmentioned that you could buy back off the insurance company, I would like to buy a carbon fibre frame from an insurance compacy, how would I go about doing that?

I'm doing a course of radiography (x-ray) of advanced materials and I would like to view damaged frames. I want to make it my project.

Regards

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dave atkinson replied to synery_1234 | 14 years ago
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synery_1234 wrote:

Hello,

Youmentioned that you could buy back off the insurance company, I would like to buy a carbon fibre frame from an insurance compacy, how would I go about doing that?

I'm doing a course of radiography (x-ray) of advanced materials and I would like to view damaged frames. I want to make it my project.

Regards

that's one avenue but bike companies routinely break their frames for testing purposes, you might try contacting them directly?

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Zaskar | 14 years ago
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Will do!

Thanks for info folks!

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Old Cranky | 14 years ago
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When you make an insurance claim, remember to use the RRP of any replacement goods.

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DaSy | 14 years ago
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I was involved in an RTA a year or so ago, and although there was no visible damage to my Look 555, the fact that it had been involved in an accident that buckled both wheels and trashed the tyres was enough for me to claim for an entire bike, which I got.

I said I was happy to ride the frame as long as the insurance company would write me a letter to state the frame was 100% road worthy as I was going to be riding in the Alps later that year and doing 50+ mph descents on it.

They looked into shipping it back to Look for X-rays etc, and decided it was best to just write it off. I bought it back off the insurance for £100 and it lives on my Tacx Fortius now.

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Zaskar | 14 years ago
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Cheers for the advice and well wishes.

Hope to get my winter bike out next week but still dizzy.

Just glad I opted for the cycle insurance-deffo worth it £60 Vs £1000 bike.

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JonMack | 14 years ago
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Good news about the new bike James  1 hope your neck feels better soon.

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dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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Quote:

Will the frame be ok?

No, it won't be okay. or at least there's no way to check without dissecting the whole thing. If there's visible damage then it's an insurance job in my book.

Quote:

Fork with bubbling under the paint

down the back of the fork legs? that's a classic sign of internal damage caused by a frontal impact. It likely means that there's some delamination in the carbon layers. I wouldn't ride the fork again.

Check under the down tube too: you'll likely see some damage there and that'll be where the creaking up the front is coming from. Again, if that is the case then I wouldn't ride the frame.

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Zaskar | 14 years ago
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Thanks for the tips.

Had a bit of positive news, Halfords agreed with me that the bike is a write off and the labour and parts would be huge.

Another LBS said they would advise to replace the whole bike part from the front mech and wheels but repair and labour would be more than the bike RRP.

So some good news for me but the insurance company will opt for cheaper option of replacement bike etc.

Had major whiplash this morning but ok. Oh well these things happen, can't wait to ride again!

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jezzzer | 14 years ago
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yikes. i'm no expert in carbon, but i wouldn't trust a creaking bubbling frame to hold up when you hit a bump at 40mph.... gotta be an insurance job, surely.

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JonMack | 14 years ago
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In all honesty I wouldn't trust a repair job.

There is no way that a company can check the whole frame for cracks that might not appear in the surface of the carbon, i'd be more tempted to claim for a whole new bike, if that's an option.

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