ddeand 

Just wondering if any of you have ever had a frame fail on any early era carbon bikes? I’m talking about the aluminum lugged frames like the Specialized Epic or the Trek carbons from the mid-1990s. I hear stories, and my daughter owned one way back when, but I wonder what people’s experiences are with them. I’ve heard various opinions about their life expectancy - both positive and negative. Any actual users? Opinions?

dunrobin

There was one documented case of a trek bike front fork failure where the rider succumbed to his injuries.

non-fixie 

I have both an early nineties Giant Cadex 980C and a Koga-Myiata RoadWinner Carbolite. Both are still in one piece.

gaucho777 

The bond between the BB shell and the seat tube on my Look KG86 failed. It took me a while to even realize what had happened. I could still ride the bike even though the epoxy was no longer holding the seat tube to the BB. It would ride fine when sitting in the saddle, not mashing a big gear, but when I got out of the saddle or put in a big effort, the BB would drop down ~10-15 mm and pull the front derailleur cable causing unexpected shifts. Nothing I could detect with the bike in the repair stand. One day, I hope to re-epoxy the bond. That said, I have not heard many cases of bonded frames failing. Nonetheless, based on my experience, I'm personally not likely to invest in another frame/bike with bonded tubes.

Bianchigirll 

I don’t recall catastrophic damage or an accident but we sold a Geurciott, I believe a rebranded Vitus, that a tube was separating. I actually think many of them were recalled. Weren’t the Peugeot’s recalled too?

conspiratemus1

A catastrophic failure while under way, (an "asplosion"), would very likely render the rider dead, unable to use a computer, or disinclined to have anything to do with cycling on or off the internet ever again. So you're unlikely to hear personal first-hand testimonials about those failures, if any there be, from us here among the alive and riding. It's what we call a biased sample.
I'm glad the failures so far reported here, other than by dunrobin , have not produced injuries.
(FWIW, the very first 10-speed I ever bought, a steel UO-8, separated in the same place as gaucho777 's bonded bike. The shop gave me a new one. Brazing wasn't always the greatest back in the bike boom.)

scarlson 

Guerciotti would have been a rebranded Alan Carbonio.

But the Vitus Carbone also has at least one recorded instance of catastrophic failure:
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=101656.0

The bonded all-aluminum frames from Vitus, I have never seen or heard of a failure from simply riding. From setting up as a fixie (vertical drops) and messing up the chain tension, sure.

Also found this on that forum thread I posted the link to: "The problem was that sweat/ sports drinks would get into the slightly porous epoxy and form a battery between the Al and carbon. The current would then progressively degrade the epoxy, virtually regardless of whether it was ridden or not. Frames bonding Al tubes to Al lugs would occasionally separate but the carbon models were notorious for it.Early carbon Treks were bonded to Al lugs but with a layer of fibreglass between, which almost completely stopped it happening." Don't know if it's true, but it's interesting materials science.

RobbieTunes

Yes.

I have had 3 Centurion Ironman Carbons and 1 identical Carbon-R (better fork).

I switched the Carbon-R to a 1” threadless headset.
It developed a vibration. I tightened.
The vibration came back (on downhill braking). I tightened.
It got worse. I tightened more.
I was crushing the alloy lugs on the head tube.
Eventually they cracked enough so even my dumb ass could notice.
Dumpstered it.

I’ve had a Trek Composite 2100 and a Specialized Allez Epic. No issues.
I have an Exxon Graftek and a Giant Cadex CFR-1. No issues.

gugie 

Specialized Allez, earlier edition, BB separation. Got a replacement frame, after a year or so started seeing the tell tale sign of clear coat bubbling up right at the aluminum lug/downtube interface, so that frame got cut in half after I harvested the parts.

TiHabanero

Trek 2300 came apart at the head lug/top tube interface. Galvanic corrosion is my guess as there was a lot of corrosion on the head lug and the clear coat had peeled away. Not my favorite ride anyway, no great loss. Had a Cadex 980c with lots of corrosion, but it never came apart. Got lucky I suppose.

Oldairhead 

I had a 1989 Specialized Epic Allez which had carbon tubes bonded to aluminum lugs. I rode it mainly for centuries, some doubles and a few citizen races until 2001 when I became aware of the bonding failures that some were having. It still looked good but it started to feel dead to me and I began to get worried so I sold it. I didn't actually need to see it fail for myself. I bought a Pegoretti Palo Santo back then and it was like a miracle how much more responsive that steel bike was! After that I swore off carbon or mixed material frames forever.

Spaghetti Legs 

96 Colnago C40 and an 05 Alan cross frame both carbon fiber covered aluminum lugs. I got the C40 around 2003 and have put about 10000 miles on it. It sat dormant for a few years with a BB thread problem, but no lug or joint problems. The Alan hasn’t been in my possession long but has been pounded pretty hard with cross riding and held up well.

T-Mar

I've had a few Giant and Specialized that came through the shop and were beginning to exhibit delamination in the vicinity of the lugs and BB shell. There may have been more but it's not evident unless it's nude carbon fibre

JaccoW

Ran into a few early Koga-Miyata MTB frames for cheap that used the carbon tube + aluminum lugs construction. Most of them were separating at the lugs.