Avanti Circa - is this the forks about to give way?

[DCLane]

Cleaning my Avanti Circa commuter bike this morning I noticed a couple of paint chips plus some bubbling around the fork area. It's a carbon fork with alloy steerer.

Is this a warning that the forks are on their way out?

 

[fossyant]

I'd not be happy with that - it's a alloy steerer and fork crown with bonded carbon forks. Given the galvanic corrosion around the join/bond and given the visible crack in the paint at said join, I'd retire them and get some generic carbon forks from SJS.

PS tuck the straddle wire into the canti brake - you scruff !

PPS which guards are they - clip on ? (similar might fit my CX bike)

 

[Once a Wheeler]

I'm no expert on this but by analogy with other all-weather situations, especially on boats, it looks very dodgy. Most worrying to me are those micro-cracks below the level of the blistering. Definitely get a professional opinion.

 

[biggs682]

@Illaveago had similar on a Boardman

 

[FishFright]

I'd be replacing the fork immeadiately as it's in the area where the join.

 

[Venod]

Strip of the paint and see what's underneath, the bond may be OK, no harm if your thinking of scrapping it.

 

[DCLane]

Thanks @fossyant , @Once a Wheeler , @FishFright , @biggs682 & @Venod - noted and you've confirmed my concerns. It's my commuter bike and maybe two winters of commuting haven't treated it well. The bubbling has been growing for a while but today's the first time I've seen paint cracked and chipped off.

I'll go fork and/or frame hunting. It's used over the winter in all weathers so two years tends to be about right ime.

PS tuck the straddle wire into the canti brake - you scruff !

PPS which guards are they - clip on ? (similar might fit my CX bike)

I live in Yorkshire and, particularly as I frequent Sid's Cafe in Holmfirth a lot, like to reflect Compo's scruffy personality. We do 'scruffy' well in Yorkshire. When we want to.

The guards are SKS Raceblade Pro XL, although I only use the front since the mudguard mount has a rusted bolt in.

Strip of the paint and see what's underneath, the bond may be OK, no harm if your thinking of scrapping it.

Useful idea. I'll do that this evening and have a good look. My guess is it's not in a great condition.

This morning I dropped most of my bikes at the LBS for Shimano crank checks. They'll be gone for 7-10 days whilst being done so I 'borrowed' my son's old Columbus cyclo-cross bike for the commute.

The roads in/out of Leeds city centre are in an awful state so it's cyclo-cross tyres only or the toughest road tyres: my current options are the Raleigh Pioneer (erm ... possible), son no. 2's Columbus X-Wing (I discovered today it's too small) or a grasstrack fixie with a front brake fitted (hills, we have hills - 5 climbs inbound, 6 climbs home).

 

[Illaveago]

I had that on my Boardman .
The aluminium has corroded and has crept under the resin and the edge of the resin has become brittle . It is not the carbon fibre which has come away . I think that the fork legs fit onto the fork crown like a mortise and tenon joint and a band of carbon fibre tape is bonded on top after the legs have been bonded in . I rubbed mine down, treated the aluminium and bonded on another layer of carbon fibre . I have been using my bike and there's no sign of cracks . I wear gloves whilst riding .

 

[cyberknight]

I had that on my Boardman .
The aluminium has corroded and has crept under the resin and the edge of the resin has become brittle . It is not the carbon fibre which has come away . I think that the fork legs fit onto the fork crown like a mortise and tenon joint and a band of carbon fibre tape is bonded on top after the legs have been bonded in . I rubbed mine down, treated the aluminium and bonded on another layer of carbon fibre . I have been using my bike and there's no sign of cracks . I wear gloves whilst riding .

odd
all my boardmans have full carbon forks

 

[Jameshow]

Sand it down and check for cracks then hammerite in grey!! Keep dentist on speed dial!🤣🤣🤣

 

[DCLane]

Right ... forks are off and I've removed the flaking paint to have a better look.

Firstly, it looks like it's all the way round on one fork leg and, without doing the same, part of the way on the other. There's also flexing where the cracked paint is. Not good.

Second, the steerer isn't a dead straight one. Nor is it a curved. But it is straight with a tiny bulge outwards at the bottom. These New Zealanders

Annoyingly I turned down a cyclocross frameset last week that would have done as a replacement. But I am picking up something temporary on Thursday.

 

[Jameshow]

Your being far to cautious..next you'll be thinking something is up with your superdupa Shimano cranks!🤣🤣🤣

 

[Illaveago]

Right ... forks are off and I've removed the flaking paint to have a better look.

Firstly, it looks like it's all the way round on one fork leg and, without doing the same, part of the way on the other. There's also flexing where the cracked paint is. Not good.

Second, the steerer isn't a dead straight one. Nor is it a curved. But it is straight with a tiny bulge outwards at the bottom. These New Zealanders

View attachment 709431

Annoyingly I turned down a cyclocross frameset last week that would have done as a replacement. But I am picking up something temporary on Thursday.

If you do scrap the forks it would be interesting to discover how the carbon forks join the fork crown.

 

[Illaveago]

odd
all my boardmans have full carbon forks

Mine is a Boardman Sport.

 

[DCLane]

I took the Avanti into my LBS today as part of the Shimano crankset recall as it has an Ultegra 6800 crankset that's part of the recall batch.

The fork crack was confirmed and it looks to be a non-standard fork. It's neither tapered nor straight but has a ridge towards the bottom.

So ... I'm on the hunt for a replacement cyclocross frame and have bought a temporary bike for commuting in the mean-time.