I have a 2001 vintage Aegis bike that has been relegated to trainer usage for the past 3-4 years. While cranking hard in a high gear, I heard a clicking from the rear of the bike. Turns out that the aluminum insert (that the rear dropout is attached to) is loose inside the carbon fibre tube. Apparently the years of abuse from my 225 pound frame has broken the bond between the two materials.
Is this a repairable item (without ridiculous expense considering the age of the frame)? If yes, recommendations for bonding agent to repair this loose joint would be greatly appreciated.
The stuff Mork recommended is pretty good. Make sure to clean up carefully both the dropout and the inside of the dropout tube (if you can pull it out completely). Also, you can get some microbaloons (small hollow glass beads (like really, really small)) and pepper them into the mix (maybe 1% by weight) to provide the proper glue gap. If it is not coming apart, clean first with water, using a vacuum to suck out the water that gets into the frame from doing this, then with acetone. You will have to figure out how to ‘inject’ the epoxy into the joint so that it can get all the way up in there. You can try heating the area with a very slow set epoxy…but be careful, as heat speeds up the reaction and will reduce pot life (effective working time before the epoxy sets up). You could also try a wetlayup and ‘make’ an external lug with some kevlar roving…although if this is the cassette side, it might get in the way. Just make sure that you dont use anything that comes from the Home Depot or Walmart. That stuff is not really epoxy…it is usually a polyester resin which is very different from epoxy resin (even though it says right on the package ‘epoxy’).