Friday, December 30, 2011

Do it Yourself FLS2: Repairing Carbon Wheel


Gabe's RTS CARBON 650c carbon fiber tubular wheel resurrected!!

For those hungry riders out there who might attempt to do a similar repair, I should remind you that in this repair I do not add carbon fiber for supporting structure around the crack and is purely aesthetic. If you plan to put a damaged carbon fiber part back in daily use, please leave the repair job up to the pros

A couple weeks ago Gabe had an unfortunate accident during our ride and his front wheel was damaged. I told him "bring it by and I'll fix it for you so at least you can bring it out on a Sunday cruise." So Gabe brought it over and I went shopping at the hardware store.


This is what it was like when I brought it out in the sunlight and took a closer look.





It looked a bit worse than I expected. Also there was a crack developing right around the valve hole. So I got my stuff together and got to work!














Just had to spill the water... lol

I used epoxy with curing time of 1 hour because although 5 min curing epoxy is faster to use, it will yellow much faster. It was also the strongest the store carries, 2500lb/sq.in., so Sunday slow cruise should be ok on the wheel as long as there's no big potholes (I wouldn't recommend it though). 

After sanding the epoxy all the way up to 3000 grit finishing paper I brought it back outside.





I can't say it's the prettiest repair job ever, but hey, it's not too bad for $10 (material) and a beer, is it? ;)



3 comments:

  1. DIY is a great way to save money, but I like to get a professional quote for wheel repair white rock as well.

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  2. Hi this one is great and is really a good post and provide good information on carbon fiber wheels.

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