Without purchasing a new component, you can safely lengthen the fork tube.

In the case of the steerer tube shown in the photo, I lengthened it by 5.5 cm using the following procedure: I created the piece of tube needed for the lengthening, 5.5 cm long, by reusing an old piece of cut steerer tube, which can easily be found in any bicycle repair shop; then I made an Ergal pin on the lathe to replace the old expander and thus form the connection between the fork steerer tube and the new piece; I glued everything structurally and wrapped it on the outside with carbon skins to make the junction invisible.

The final result, as can be seen in the other photos, is a fork of the desired length, which no longer needs an expander, as I made an M6 threaded hole in the ergal pin to pull the headset.

With this modification, the headset is secure and, what's more, it is impossible for excessive tightening of the handlebar stem to cause it to crack, as the Ergal pin prevents the carbon fibre from being crushed.

This new service is now available: creating custom-made carbon protections for your frame. As you can see in more detail in the second photo, the protection is shaped directly over the tube it will protect in the future, to ensure the best possible fit.

The only drawback is that we will need to keep the frame for a day to allow the carbon fibre to harden.

After seeing that it was possible to repair carbon rims and replace one or more spokes on Lightweight wheels, some customers began to ask us if we could solve the braking problems that often occurred on these wheels.

Specifically, they felt jolts and jerks when braking, a sign that something was wrong with the braking track.

Doktorbike began measuring the thickness of the rims at the braking surface, around their entire circumference, and found that there was a significant difference in thickness, as much as 0.7 mm between the minimum and maximum thicknesses.

This irregularity was obviously the cause of the problems reported by customers.

The next step was to develop a solution:

Doktorbike built the mould shown in the photo, which is made specifically for lightweight wheels. To fix the irregularities on the braking surface, carbon fibre (the same as the rim) is applied and high TG (high temperature resistance) epoxy resin is used, which is necessary for the braking surfaces given the high temperatures reached during braking.

The results so far have been excellent.

This lightweight wheel is almost a record: Doktorbike replaced four spokes, which were broken (three) or seriously damaged (one) near the rim, making them impossible to reuse.

The new spokes were first moulded, then mounted on the wheel and tensioned. The replaced spokes are indicated by the red arrows.

As can be seen in the last photo, the hub flange was also remoulded by Doktorbike.

Damage like this may seem irreparable, but carbon is such a versatile material that it is possible to repair it and restore the frame to its original condition.

The work took a long time, but the result was definitely worth it, as you can see from the photos below.

Look 596 broken in two

Following a road accident, this expensive frame seemed destined for the rubbish bin, and in fact this was the opinion of all the other repairers that the unfortunate owner had approached.

After carefully assessing the damage, we decided to give it a try, both because of the value of the frame in question and because the owner was willing to pay a hefty sum to have his bike back in one piece.

In order to proceed with the repair, we had to adapt the template in our possession to the particular headset of the frame (from a time trial bike). Once this was done, the repair was carried out according to our usual procedures, taking care to restore the visible carbon weave and, of course, the graphics, to return the frame to its original appearance.

The final result can be seen in the photo.

This brand new Trek, following a road accident with a motor vehicle, had significant damage to the down tube in the lower headset area, on both sides of the tube (the photo only partially shows the extent of the damage) and some minor scratches on the fork.

We intervened by rebuilding and reinforcing the area of the lower headset bearing housing, which had been pushed inwards; we then repaired all the external damage to the down tube and redid the graphics.

We were thus able to give new life to a very expensive frame, whose fate, despite being only 10 days old, was sealed.

Repair is possible and does not add any extra weight.

To recreate the braking surface, a high-temperature resistant resin is used to avoid any braking problems, and particular attention is paid to the positioning of the fibres to keep the visible carbon weave as similar as possible to the original.

The finished work can be seen in the photos below.

For the second time in just over a month, this unfortunate Specialized bike has returned to Doktorbike for repairs. The first time, the repair was carried out on a serious fracture of the down tube, caused by a fall. The second time, as can be seen in the first photo, the problem was on the upper right chainstay, which was practically broken due to an accident during a race. The piece of chainstay was not even found. It was possible to rebuild the entire missing part from scratch using Thermanto (expanded PVC) as the inner core, which was then wrapped with intermediate modulus UD carbon fibres. Once the repair was complete, the chainstay was probably stronger than the original (thanks to the internal core that was previously absent) with a negligible increase in weight of 5-6 g. The work was completed by restoring the original graphics and paintwork, and the result can be seen in the photos below.

Following an accident, as can be seen from the first photo, this Ghost suffered a complete breakage of the right upper chainstay and a much lighter damage to another chainstay.

Even in seemingly hopeless cases like this, repair is possible, not only without any change in the performance and characteristics of the frame, but also with ample guarantees of durability.