Rubbing on underside of Carbon fork

[maurice]

Hi,

While fitting mudguards I've noticed some rubbing damage to the underside of my Allez's carbon fork. It had a 23/25c tyre in there which was a close fit, but it seems it was closer than I realised and must have been catching sometimes. Weirdly I've also noticed the wheel doesn't seem to sit totally straight in the fork, the wheel isn't buckled either. But this may be another issue.

My main query is, is this rubbing damage not worth worrying about, or is the fork's structure compromised? I've attached a pic. 

(I have now fitted 23c tyres to the wheels which have lots of clearance, but obviously would like to know whether I can rely on the fork!)

Many thanks

Maurice

 

[PatrickPending]

Hi,

While fitting mudguards I've noticed some rubbing damage to the underside of my Allez's carbon fork. It had a 23/25c tyre in there which was a close fit, but it seems it was closer than I realised and must have been catching sometimes. <SNIP>

Maurice

id say it was a fork with an aluminium/alloy steerer and the scratches would be in the metal bit. I personally wouldn't be overly concerned but someone else might enlighten us further.......

dont know why the wheel should rub tho - having said that i only ran 23c on my allez
having said that id guess stones or whatever stuck in the tyre tread or on the tyre caused most those scratches.

 

[Gerry Attrick]

It is not clear from your pic. whether the rubbing is on the opposite fork leg too. If it is not, then the issue may well be with the wheel not being centered in the fork. This is due to one of two reasons, or a combination of the two: Your fork dropouts are misaligned, or the wheel has been built slightly off centre.

You will, particularly if you are a hill-honker, get a degree of flex in the forks/steerer/wheel area, but it shouldn't be anywhere sufficient to cause tyre/fork contact.

IMHO you need to take the bike to a competent LBS to get these issues checked out. He will also be able to give an opinion on whether it is safe to continue to use the forks.

 

[maurice]

Gerry the rubbing is biased towards one side of the fork, it's those white bits I'm particularly concerned about. 

Patrick, you're correct in that the fork does have an alloy steerer, however I thought that just meant the steerer tube was alloy? If indeed this part of the fork thats rubbed is alloy then I'm not worried. I guess I need to find out where the carbon starts. 




The sensible thing is to take it to a LBS but I think they'll just say buy a new fork & wheel anyhow. This for me is a hack bike for winter training which I don't want to spend much money on, I just need it to be safe.




Cheers

 

[TheDoctor]

Have a bit of a prod at the exposed white areas. If it's metal, you should be OK. If it's fibres, I'd stop using the fork immediately.
IIRC it's not uncommon for the steerer tube and fork crown to be alloy, with the carbon fork legs bonded in.

 

[maurice]

Had a good tap with a finger nail and screwdriver and it turns out that bit is metal, which is a result. I compared it to the 3T all-carbon fork on my good bike and you can hear the difference. Learn something every day, I didn't realise the fork legs were often bonded in.

 

[Gerry Attrick]

OK, but you should still get the wheel alignment attended to.