[dspasojevic]

Hi,

I was wondering what the experience of other Mojo owners' is with rock damage. Has anyone else had their frame badly damaged by rocks spat up and out by their front wheel?

Here is what my down tube looks like after that happened to me on a fire trail with loose rock on it.

Is that sort of damage normally covered by warranty, or is it a crash / non-warranty situation?

Is there a good way to stop this sort of damage happening in the future? Apart from this, the bike has been awesome, but if it isn't preventible and is expensive to get fixed then it really changes the cost of ownership.

-Dan

 

[Gregg K]

I know how you feel. But an aluminum frame would be toast. I will wager that Ibis would agree that it can be repaired.

A rock that has a knife edge? That's quite a fluke.

Like welding rods, mountain bikes are consumables, I'm afraid. Ouch. Be happy. It'll live to ride another day.

 

[CharacterZero]

But an aluminum frame would be toast. I

Justification please?!

 

[Gregg K]

Maybe toast was a bit much. What I meant was irreparable.

 

[derby]

Sorry to see the damage. The same impact could have bent an aluminum frame so bad you couldn’t ride it back to the trail head.

How it was scraped or impacted doesn’t matter. Wear and tear and crash damage would normally not be covered by a warrantee. Warrantees are for manufacturing defects.

Send Ibis an email with your pictures. Ibis could review the damage and counsel whether it should be replaced or repaired. If repairable they could refer you to someone to fix this scrape for far less cost than a crash damage frame replacement.

 

[CharacterZero]

Sorry to see the damage.

The same impact could have bent an aluminum frame so bad you couldn't ride it back to the trail head.

+1, sorry for teh damage.

2. That is why I run straight-guage toobing!

 

[talkshow-host]

It looks bad at first, but your third picture hopefully shows that you've just damaged the cosmetic layer and not the structure. And the fourth has the cosmetic layer peeling up a bit near the edge of the crack, the structural stuff is way too thick to curl up like that.

Although Ibis or Calfree might want to see it up close to make sure. I'll bet the structural carbon is pretty thick down there, do you have the clear film stuff on there?

I have two layers of Bonk on the area form the cage mounts to the bb shell. That's pretty much where most of the impacts from rocks have been during my rides. I've heard a lot of rocks of various sizes come up and hit there, and make a sound that resonates all the way to my bank account, but I have no damage there at all. It might seem silly to double bag it, but it's worked so far.

No matter what though, I'm sure they'll take care of your problem.

 

[ibisrox]

You need to get some 3-m film and cover the places that will get dinged. I have all kinds of nicks on the tape, but no damage to the frame. Put it everywhere!
Ibis will let you know if it is beyond repair. They are pretty good on cs!
They replaced my entire silk frame when I crashed into another rider for a great price.

 

[Jefe74]

Keep in mind that the outer woven layer and clear coat does not really contribute to the structure of the frame. It is there to protect the real stuff underneath. You should definitely get a direct opinion from Ibis, but I think it is Ok as does not look to go beyond those layers. At very least, I would mix up some epoxy to fill it in.

Here is my trick for the repairing the edges of my snowboards with epoxy. Sand out the gouge with some fine grain paper to get out any loose bits and to rough up the surface. Mix up a little two part epoxy, then fill the gouge (it does not take much) then cover with some clear packing tape. Make sure there are no bubble in there. The packing tape will form the outer surface of the epoxy into a nice smooth curve, matching the shape of the surface.

- Jeff

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

Sorry to see the damage. The same impact could have bent an aluminum frame so bad you couldn't ride it back to the trail head.

How it was scraped or impacted doesn't matter. Wear and tear and crash damage would normally not be covered by a warrantee. Warrantees are for manufacturing defects.

Send Ibis an email with your pictures. Ibis could review the damage and counsel whether it should be replaced or repaired. If repairable they could refer you to someone to fix this scrape for far less cost than a crash damage frame replacement.

That's a pretty bold statement and pure speculation.

I'm sure many many people out there know of bikes, from the lightest weight xc to a FR rig that have had severe rock strikes and come away with a light scratch or a ding and have been rideable for years after. While I've never seen one myself, I'm sure few people have had an Al frame trashed solely due to a rock strike.

Live and learn.

Remember, the IBIS is being recommended for DH and from the courses I've seen and been on, rock strikes are part of the game. I have not seen too many carbon bikes out on the courses since the old thermoplastic GT Lobos.

 

[glovemtb]

Imho pretty sure you can see where it is beyond the cosmetic layer (that first lil waffle thin outer weave in pic.)
I've had a couple of different carbon frames that has happened to from Trek over the years, one oclv team issue 9900 had a crack that we could not flex and break further in the treks pit at the nationals, so I raced it anyways...others....and they have always replaced no questions (but lifetime warranty also.)
Note, but Ibis will take care of you i'll bet.

 

[Gregg K]

The more I look at those pictures, the more I have to wonder what Ibis will say. It does have a significant depth to it. And the location kind of sucks. Having done destructive testing, they probably have a lot better of a clue than we do.

Ibis to the rescue.

 

[SMR]

That's a pretty bold statement and pure speculation.

I'm sure many many people out there know of bikes, from the lightest weight xc to a FR rig that have had severe rock strikes and come away with a light scratch or a ding and have been rideable for years after. While I've never seen one myself, I'm sure few people have had an Al frame trashed solely due to a rock strike.

.

Totally agree, I have similiar dings (if not worse) on the underside of my down tubes on both my aluminum frames and have continued to ride both of them for the past several years with no problems.

Looks like the OP's ding is in the same location. I think it will be fine, dings in the downtube are usually just cosmetic. I'd be interested to hear what Ibis says though.

 

[Quattro]

I always thought that some kind of deflector or bash plate(plastic/CF) could be used down there that could be fastened to the water bottle mounts. Something lightweight and disposable. I think I once saw Derby's bike had some kind of mud deflector on it. I have a thick layer of plastic on mine. I always put it on all of my bikes(aluminum). I'm sure someone out there could make one. I'd buy one. I've thought about trying something made out of a bike fender(homemade). I'd sure hate that to happen on my Mojo. I've heard some loud hits on mine.

 

[ddraewwg]

Remember, the IBIS is being recommended for DH

Uh....what? By whom? Whoever said that the Ibis was DH rated? I'm pretty sure that if you called up Ibis they would absolutely dispute what you're claiming.

 

[derby]

That's a pretty bold statement and pure speculation..

Yeah it's speculation. But it's pretty obvious that the pictures show the results of a very hard hit that's not just "from a rock thrown off the tire". The hit and scrape is from the side and very hard, obviously not from a rock bouncing off the front tire.

I'm pretty confident in stating that this same hard side hit would deeply dent and possibly tear a hole, or bend, or break a triple-butted aluminum 5.5 inch travel frame of the same very light weight as the Mojo frame.

The strength of the Mojo in a crash compared to aluminum of similar weight has been proven to be a non-issue for two years of production.

I trust my Mojo frame to ride back to the trailhead after a crash more than any other frame available of similar weight.

I don't want to carry an extra 3 or 4 pounds of aluminum frame weight for the same durability of a Mojo.

In well over a year of riding mine usually 3 - 5 rides a week I have a number of hard to see very tiny chips in the finish coat from rocks thrown off my tires where I haven't protected with tape. And I've had many rocks jump off the ground from the tires and knock the bike hard and loud. One of these days I'll spend an hour filling and polishing the cosmetic rock chips back to a glossy brand-new look again.

If it were my bike I would attempt to clean up this crash damage with 2-part epoxy myself. Then keep a close eye on the area, frequently at first and periodically afterwards. Thin carbon fiber handlebars have shown that deep scratches can turn into cracks and eventual failure. But my guess is that this crash damage isn't bad enough where it is on the frame to fail for many years, even if it's not filled with epoxy or repaired by a pro.

 

[derby]

Uh....what? By whom? Whoever said that the Ibis was DH rated? I'm pretty sure that if you called up Ibis they would absolutely dispute what you're claiming.

There are Mojo riders competing with it in DH. Do a search.

Ibis doesn't limit it's use. There is no rider weight limit either.

 

[Jerk_Chicken]

Uh....what? By whom? Whoever said that the Ibis was DH rated? I'm pretty sure that if you called up Ibis they would absolutely dispute what you're claiming.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=3747228#post3747228

The advantage of the Mojo is its versatility. It can be utilized as a competitive light and very quick XC bike, or a rough trail plush jumping coil suspended AM, even a shuttle DH with a 160mm travel slack steering fork.

 

[literocola]

But an aluminum frame would be toast.

Not a chance. Id be scared to ride on that carbon frame. Carbon gets compromised too simply. But I would love a carbon bike! Carbon just scares me. From what catastrophic carbon failure Ive seen.

Us trials folk dent, scratch, and just beat the cr*p out of our bikes and they keep on living.

This frame is under 6 months old.

 

[hanssc]

Rocks

Hello, Hans from Ibis here,

I thought we had already responded and offered a solution, maybe the local dealer has not communicated that to you yet???

Since I have hit this area of the frame hard with a carpenter's framing hammer just to check out what would happen with rock impacts, I know it takes quite a bit to damage it. (nearly as hard as I can hit it with the hammer) Since the underside of the down tube is fairly thick it is pretty robust.

That sort of damage does not happen often, actually your photos were the first we'd ever seen like that...

I'd say your options for repair are:
1.Do as previous posters have mentioned and clean / smooth out the groove, and fill it with epoxy and keep an eye on it. That would set you back about $10 and 20 - 30 minutes of time.
2. Utilize our very low cost no fault warranty and continue on as new...

Take care,
Hans