where did you get one repaired? I had almost the exact problem with almost same damage
Not even the slightest….you’ll never notice it.
If the guy is giving you a 5 year warranty, I wouldn’t think twice.
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I repaired a seat stay on my hard tail mtb and can’t tell any difference. IMHO good as new. Ruckus composite is who I used.
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Personally, I think people get too worked up over carbon fiber repairs. Putting some fibers in a plastic resin is an ancient technology. They have been repairing boats, helicopter blades, airplane wings for decades. We are just dealing with stupid bicycles!
To me, the untold secret of the carbon frame is that you can effectively repair it over and over for a few hundred bucks. You can overbuild the repair just to be sure. It’s hard to repair aluminum frames. Steel frames can be repaired with some difficult and then they need a paint job. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a carbon band-aid on most frames unless it was some super fancy painted Colnago or something.
I recommend the CyclingTips podcast with Ruckus. It was maybe a year or two ago. He basically says that “high modulus” and the weight differences between, for example, an S-Works and regular Tarmac is mostly marketing. He said that actual high modulus carbon was insanely expensive and that you’d never want a bike made of 100% high mod. It would be too stiff and brittle. They put a tiny bit of that high mod in these high end bikes. And mostly, it’s going to have less resin to meet the lighter weight goal.
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…or an awful lot less if you want to do it yourself, which really isn’t that difficult once you have the right tools, materials and guidance (and thus confidence!)
I sourced the required materials from here, very comprehensive products for carbon repair of bikes (or fishing rods, boats etc…)
I’m currently starting am MTB hardtail repair, initially filling-in the gouge in the chain stay (a channel wore into the chain stay by the tyre) with the filler advised above, and laying the sections of carbon fabric etc…
If you ever made a papier-mache model when you were a kid then you’re off to a head start! 
Sigh. 
This weekend a small dog ran in front of my wheel (in the last 3 miles of a 75 mile/7000’ climbing day). I’m pretty sure I killed the dog – it was a Dachshund. I hit the deck very hard, on my face. My Kask Protone saved my life, or at least my ability to make coherent sentences.
So, the kick in the nuts — ignoring all the road rash, is that I cracked my Canyon Ultimate CF EVO on the top tube. I’m gonna try a repair myself, and see how it goes. I have used plenty of professional carbon shops and painters before, but this time I’ll give it a go.
The reality is that my Canyon is a rim brake 11-speed, which even under 6kg, is a technological dinosaur, and this might be the excuse to just get something more modern.
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Man that just stinks all around — I’m glad you’re ok and I’m sorry to hear about the dog and your bike. I’d say if you love the bike, take a crack (haha!) at repairing it and let us know how it goes!
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Usually I’d make the obligatory “Can the bike be fixed?” joke, but since a living being likely died, this is not the place. I’m glad your helmet saved you and you seem to be ok.
Please, do not repair this yourself. It looks as if the entire tube is cracked all the way through (to the left of the C). If your top tube fails while riding, you might need more than a new helmet and a new frame.
Tell me more. The crack doesn’t extend from the top to the bottom of the tube, but indeed I could maybe slide a tiny sliver of paper in that crack.
I know with 100% confidence it can be professionally repaired – heck, I’ve gotten stuff done recently from Cleveland Carbon that was much much worse. My calculation is simply that with a rim brake, 11-speed bike, it might not be worth the $800 repair. I could, quite easily retrofit every single component from this bike onto an brand new Elves Vanyar for under $1000. Or, drop $6k on a new disc/12-speed/etap whip.
Thoughts?
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That means that in this part of the bike, all carbon fibers are completely severed, meaning you have essentially zero strength left in that part. Filling it with resin will do nothing as it is the fibers that contribute essentially all of the tensile strength.
Are you a professional to make that judgement? This is not a simply DIY job but requires knowledge and equipment. A carbon repair worth their salt will check the frame with an ultrasound machine and come to a decision then.
Keep in mind that the top tube might not be the only part of the frame that has been damaged. Perhaps some other part of the frame has a crack in it that is not visible. You can do a tap test with a screw driver (by tapping all tubes, handlebars, etc. and look for asymmetries in the sound. Just to emphasize, even if your bike passes the tap test, it does not mean it is safe to ride. But if you noticed additional damage during the tap test, it’d be additional incentive to simply scrap the frame.
Even if this is the only part that has been damaged, your frame could be economically totaled, i. e. the repair not being worth it. Have you had your (carbon?) handlebars checked by someone? How about the wheels?
So unless a carbon repair shop I trust gave me the green light, I wouldn’t ride that frame nor attempt a repair. If your top tube failed during a ride, the result would be catastrophic. Ditto for handlebars, both are failures you cannot recover from and will likely lead to severe injury. Do you want to take that risk? I wouldn’t.
I would lean towards a new bike.
You should be confident that the components are all ok, i. e. have them checked out by a professional. If you have carbon handlebars (quite likely given the weight of your bike), then these might be damaged.
Personally, I would just get a new bike or a crash replacement. I’d mark the components as coming from a crashed bike and use e. g. the handlebars as decoration or throw them away (unless they have been checked by an expert and given the clear). I would not feel comfortable selling components I would not want to ride myself.
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Thank you. I appreciate the detail of your answer. Looks like my Amex card is gonna have a rippin’ time pretty soon.
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Not looking to get into an argument here, but my understanding is that the proper way to repair damage like this is by wrapping and bonding new carbon around the crack or hole. If you’re gonna just fill it with resin, yeah, no go, toss frame. But if you’re essentially putting a CF cast (like with a broken bone) around the crack I don’t see why it wouldn’t be fine? Particularly on a top tube.
That being said @Jack_Russell_Racing it’s your skin that’s on the line 
and Elves does make some cool looking bikes.
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Why isn’t the owner of the dog paying for this?
It isn’t that simple, especially once you get to the craftsmanship. If you are interested in learning how it works, have a look at this GCN video or Luescher Teknik’s channel. Especially the latter is an expert in the field. Here are a few issues with your suggestion:
- A lot comes down to craftsmanship when handling carbon fibers. Yes, the recipe for making pasta is super simple, the simplest recipes just require three ingredients. Yet, making pasta is something that requires a lot of skill and practice.
- Before you attempt a repair, you need to do a damage survey. This requires doing an ultrasound, because some of the damage might be covered by paint and/or not be visible on the surface.
- It is tempting to think that adding just a bunch of material to make this place super strong is the answer, i. e. adding a sleeve or a bandaid. But it isn’t that easy. Your idea of making a sleeve could, if done improperly either not have the right strength properties or create additional weaknesses (such as a sharp transition where the tube is very stiff on one side and normal on the other). (This very same question is asked at 8:21 of the GCN video I linked to.)
- Ideally, you should aim to replicate the weave and layup that the frame manufacturer used. Layup means you determine carbon fiber type, the layering, the direction in which the fibers in each layer (!) point towards, etc. So you have to know what make and model it is, then pick the right carbon layers and then craft them on correctly.
- Layup is particularly important if your bike is damaged asymmetrically, e. g. if one of the chain stays or seat stays is cracked.
- A professional shop will also check the repaired frame. This again requires professional equipment.
So could it be done? In theory, yes. But doing it properly requires equipment regular people don’t have and craftsmanship that comes with experience and practice. Would you be willing to skimp on that for a safety critical part?
You should call around and get a quote for a repair but no paint work. Just go with a carbon fiber band-aid. Even clear coat it yourself or put uv protectant on it. It seems like too nice of a frame not to repair.
Personally, I wouldn’t be afraid of a DIY repair as long as you researched it and did it right. I researched it a while back and don’t think that it is that hard but you do many steps to do it right. Go watch 10 carbon repair videos and you’ll get the gist of it.
Plus one for Ruckus. Had a broken chain stay area and the repair was excellent on my Domane. That was about 10,000 miles ago. Getting the repaint match up about doubled the price but well worth it. Looking closely you can see the broken area is a bit bigger but they tapered it beautifully .Paint match is perfect. My son is a material scientist/engineer who works with carbon fiber and he was very impressed. I can try to dig up before/after pics if anyone is interested.
I was initially skeptical about carbon repair, but i had a spare frame repaired and they seem to have done a brilliant job of it.
Initially sent it in to get the tyre rub spot checked out as it looked mega deep, however i was told it was fine, but another bit on the chainstay was structurally damaged by the chain.
Looks like they cut out that entire section and redid it - really is a great job they did. I left it raw carbon as I’m in the process of stripping the frame back and it looks kinda cool as a bit of a battle scar 
It cost me £288 i think it was.
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It looks like they sanded down the abraided fibers, added a layer of ±45º, faired it in, and called it good.