Here is what happened to me and one of my riding buddies in is garage yesterday afternoon: in the process of preparing his gear for the upcoming season and removing a used tubular from one of his carbon wheels (the manufacturer shall remain anonymous here), he delaminated a section (about 4cm) of his rim bed. By this I mean: a portion of the thin hard translucent layer/finish protecting the 12K carbon weave stuck to the tubular and pulled away with it, leaving the crabon weave exposed. We could touch/feel the finely braided carbon fibres.
We called the wheel manufacturer’s customer service, but the representative who spoke with us was totally useless. Despite the fact that the wheel is still under warranty and was glued with one of the most ubiquitous cements on the market (Vittoria Mastik), we were refused any warranty repair or replacement service on the grounds that we “definitely used the Tufo tape”. (It is safe to say we’re not going to buy anything ever again from that wheel manufacturer.)
So A quick question to ST (before we get in touch with Calfee): Can you recommend a fix/any specific epoxy? There is no visible damage to the weave, no cracks, no dead tap spots, etc., just the missing top layer. We’re thinking it should be a fairly easy repair involving a single thin coat of the 3M Scotch-Weld Epoxy DP-460 (high shear and peel strength). Anybody agree or disagree? Alternative recommendations?
If it’s a Zipp, they warranty repair wheels that delam from removing a tire. Take a picture and email it to them to prove it is glued rather than taped.
Use a two part epoxy resin. If the carbon fibers are exposed they need to be sealed.Apply epoxy resin over the exposed area and blend past that area on to the good area to bond.Once it drys it can be wet sanded to blend into the rest of the inside rim.
I customized a Hed3c to Hed 3D and used this product:
Thanks for your advice. I’m not familiar with the epoxy you’ve recommended, so I googled it. The 3M Scotch-Weld epoxy mentioned in my OP is two-part, and it sounds comparable to the MAX CLR. (Given the location of the problem, we don’t really care about gloss or general appearance much, just want to seal the CF so as to maintain the wheel’s structural soundness). The 3M epoxy is here:
Looking through stuff at my workshop I also found some two-part Loctite QuickSet Epoxy, and I’m wondering if this would suffice for the job. If interested, you can check it out here:
Any further input/advice/comments would be much appreciated. We’d have to order the MAX CLR over the web, whereas the 3M is available in a local hardware store (and the Loctite is in our hands).
Before you get going, you may want to post this over on Weight Weenies. They have several people who do custom carbon fabrication and repair. They may give additional recommendations.
What was the manufacturer of the rim - I would like to know so I never buy a rim from them. I had an old non-dimpled Zipp rim that this happened to and I called up customer support and they had me send it in. It was out of warranty, but to my surprise a new rim was shipped to me (dimpled 2008) attached to the old spokes and hub and all free of charge.
Make sure that if you use epoxy that you use vinyl gloves. That is a must. Developing an allergy (and you will) is not a good thing and getting an allergic reaction is even worse.
