Hey everybody, I’m SO sorry for my late reply, but I’ve been super busy and going through some stuff at the moment. I realize in hindsight I probably freaked some people out by reporting I hadn’t gotten a response and then disappearing like that.
The timeline was like this: emailed adam@, then emailed sales1@, one day apart. A couple days passed and then I posted on the forum here, and another couple days later I emailed the “front door” inquiry email from Carbonda’s website. Adam then responded to that email within 24h, but I did not update here, because our conversation was ongoing.
He saw my video (attached in my email) and immediately arranged a replacement fork. He asked me to cut the malfunctioning fork vertically along the steerer, and horizontally though the crown. I did so and have just replied back to him; it’s been a week since he asked me to do this, but I didn’t have my power tools handy until I returned home from away.
For what it’s worth, I don’t have my replacement fork yet, but after the first few days, all additional delay has been caused by me, not Carbonda, and Adam has boosted my confidence considerably with how quickly he recognized the problem and set about getting a replacement. Between 505 and 696, I’ve built over a dozen bikes with these framesets and this is the first issue that I know of with any of them, so I continue to have confidence in the safety of the bikes. As it goes for any carbon product, if it starts behaving funny, stop using it.
Also, for what it’s worth, the tenor of my post here so far probably sounds like Carbonda asked me to write it. I assure you, such is not the case. I saw in my email digests that a few people fixated on this issue and then realized I was a butthead by not updating here. Happy to share my email correspondence with Adam if anyone is uncertain.
If anyone wants to see the inside of my fork, here’s a photo! Upon flexing the fork at the crown, it’s visually obvious that the fibers are flexing there. That said, they all appear intact — just decoupled from each other, enabling the structure to unnaturally flex. Will see if I can get a video of it in action; fascinating. I think the fork, even in this compromised state, was pretty far from actually breaking all at once and dumping me on my face. Gives me confidence I’ll be able to spot future failures in other forks before they can cause an accident.
Mittlerweile habe ich alle Parts zusammen bis auf den Rahmen. Preislich liege ich am Ende irgendwo bei 1800€ laut meiner Liste. Teile im Spoiler.
Ich hab den 505 ja auch, aber ich hab grad keine Vorstellung mehr wie genau Rahmen und Klemme da zueinander stehen.
Lass' Dich fürstlich trösten (vor allem für Sommermonate ohne Gravelrahmen) und gönn' Dir was Feines.
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Hauptsache dir gehts gut!
