TooManyMatts

Nope haven't got the frame yet.

It was a Scott. This makes me sad, a carbon fix in such a high stress area sounds like a bad idea. Is there a chance that it is a surface crack caused by the flex int he carbon at this point? A friend's carbon bike once had a crack near the seatpost which looked a lot like this one and the manufacturers said it was just the paint and that he shouldn't worry. It looks like I'm stuck with this now. So if I do sand down to find that its just surface damage, then I could just repaint with clear.

Ya its absolute rubbish. I bough a bike a couple years ago that had a "lifetime warranty" only to find that the small print contained a clause that states that the lifetime of a carbon bike is 5 years so after 5 years the warranty didn't apply.

If what looks like paint around that shell is carbon it would have to be one layer of very thin fiber. If that lug is alu, then I'm sure I can get the hairline crack welded. If its carbon is there any way to get something like that fixed?

Oh, so you are sure that isn't an alu lug?

I don't know anyone in aviation... How do you go about getting an x-ray? Is x-ray even possible if I'm right about this being an alu section of the frame? I don't think the warranty applies once it is sold on.

I've attached a pic of a frame like it and pics of the supposed crack. Its a 2007 specialized sworks epic carbon. Looks like its on an aluminium part of the frame judging by the pics. I think it might very well be a paint crack. I'm thinking that I should just sand off the paint around the crack to see if its stuffed.

I just looked at the weather predictions. EISH!!!! thats all I can say folks. http://www.weathersa.co.za/Weather.asp?ProdType=5&fpgid=7day68572 Thats the URL for the SA Weather Service so you can go check it out for yourself. A summary would be that its going to be 19, raining and possibly storming. These predictions are for Underburg so you can expect it to be worse and much colder at Sani Pass. Will people still ride in those conditions? I'm bleek, I have to confess after all the hilly training....

Man I'm so keen for this! Thanks for the info Agteros

Hi What sort of fitness level do you have to have to finish this thing? I am really keen to do this with my girlfriend this year but I'm not sure it's do-able. @ the guys who have made it before, what training did you do for it? Thanks

I don't have a SRAM crank. I was asking because I want to get a new crank and I was worried about the durability of the GXP system. Like Dirt-Rider said, this is a reason to stick with FSA or Raceface if you want an alternative to shimano because they are compatible with Hollowtech II and are therefore rebuilable. It seems like a mission to go buy sleeves and run the risk of the rebuild not working anyway. This may be off topic but why is it cheaper to order full cranks with BB's from crc than to buy just the rings? It seems odd for the replacement parts to be more expensive than a whole new system.

Ah! those sneaky buggers... oh well, it's good business strategy I suppose.

Is a DIY rebuild possible? It works very well with Hollowtech II cranks so why not with SRAM's offering?

Specialized Body Glove technology! Your handlebar is putting pressure on a specific nerve that runs under your ulnar bone. These gloves are designed to relieve that pressure. They work for me and they were well worth the extortionist cost.

Hi I am replacing my drivetrain and I'm getting it all from CRC because it seems much much cheaper. I have a few questions that I hope can be easily answered by some good old experience here on the hub. 1) What do you think of the FSA Moto XC crankset? http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=35722 2) Is this crank compatible with Hollowtech 2 BB cups? It seems so but I want to be sure. 3) What are the import duties like when buying off CRC? Is it a percentage of the total cost? I'm going for an XT cluster and chain with this. And its radically cheaper than my LBS. They quoted about R900 for the cluster and CRC wants 800 for both chain and cluster including postage.... I decided to just replace the whole crankest when I saw how cheap they were. Thanks