Old fork



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Pete Beall

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I'm riding a Merlin Extra Light with a Time carbon fiber fork that is rolling over 35,000 miles.
Only the frame, fork, and seat post are original equipment. I'm secure in the integrity of the
frame, but heading down a hill last week I began to wonder about how carbon forks age: last forever,
start to develop cracks and other warning signs, or fail catastrophically? Anyone know?
--
http://www.petebeall.net
 
Pete Beall <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm riding a Merlin Extra Light with a Time carbon fiber fork that is rolling over 35,000 miles.
> Only the frame, fork, and seat post are original equipment. I'm secure in the integrity of the
> frame, but heading down a hill last week I began to wonder about how carbon forks age: last
> forever, start to develop cracks and other warning signs, or fail catastrophically? Anyone know?

I don't know. Why don't you pull the fork and inspect it and let us know what you find?
 
> Pete Beall <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I'm riding a Merlin Extra Light with a Time carbon fiber fork that is rolling over 35,000 miles.
> > Only the frame, fork, and seat post are original equipment. I'm secure in the integrity of the
> > frame, but
heading
> > down a hill last week I began to wonder about how carbon forks age: last forever, start to
> > develop cracks and other warning signs, or fail catastrophically? Anyone know?

"Richard Ney" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I don't know. Why don't you pull the fork and inspect it and let us know what you find?

His question was reasonable I think.

It is certainly possible for carbon to delaminate partially inside a fork blade. Removing the fork
would not be helpful in evaluating that. And since carbon cannot be inspected nondestructively
except on the surface, one cannot be certain of the integrity after the vicissitudes of 35K miles.

The airplane which took off from Kennedy and dumped in Queens late in 2001 had a carbon tail
assembly which had been dropped during assembly. That fact was duly recorded but the piece could not
be inspected beyond the surface. The carbon tail broke apart in flight.

Hopefully the OP's fork does not harbor such a problem but how can he be sure?

--
Andrew Muzi http://www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April 1971
 
Thanks for the suggestions. Kraig is a good one to address this to. I don’t know if he’s still
watching this list so I’ll try him directly.

--
http://www.petebeall.net "Pete Beall" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm riding a Merlin Extra Light with a Time carbon fiber fork
that
> is rolling over 35,000 miles. Only the frame, fork, and seat post are original equipment. I'm
> secure in the integrity of the frame, but heading down a hill last week I began to wonder about
> how carbon forks age: last forever, start to develop cracks and other warning signs, or fail
> catastrophically? Anyone know?
> --
> http://www.petebeall.net
 
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