I have a '99 C40, AD11...beautiful bike complete with the little Italian guy on the top tube who is always ready for a spin.

The problem is the little man forgot to yell at me to watch-out for the garage when the family and I rolled-in from our recent summer break. (The little airbrushed biker dude and I are not on speaking terms at the present.)

I will forever more refer to this as the "roof racked C40 meets the garage incident of 2004." A nauseous, gut-wrenching event if there has ever been one. In fact, I am getting nauseous again telling the story, so this will be the last time I tell this tale.

Clearly I rolled up under the garage and backed-up as soon as I realized my screw-up. But the top of the garage did scrape the top of my ITM MIllenium stem and then about 6 long inches on the top tube right before the seat post.

Since then the ride has just not felt 100%...noticeable "chatter" in the back-end that could be a figment of my imagination or the signs of something very, very wrong. There looks like there may be two small cracks in the carbon under the clearcoat on the Star Fork now. There are also a number of "blemishes" and "inconsistencies" that again could be real or perceived. I rode the thing for 7-10 days afterwards, but the LBC wrencher flipped out and threatened bodily harm to me if I continued riding it (above and beyond what he believes could happen when the frame gives on a 50mph descent.)

Mike at Maestro says I need an xray to check for structural integrity issues. How in the hell do I get my bike frame xrayed? Last time I checked, my HMO doesn't cover that. Do I need to send it the Colnago factory? Any bike shops in the US that could give me a definitive, trustworthy diagnosis? If there are issues, Mike said that repair could be an option, but I can only imagine how much that would be.

Bueller, Bueller? Anyone, anyone? Thanks in advance for any and all insight you may have.


Regards,
Roof-rackless in TN
(from now on)

Composites have been in use for a long time in airframes, fixed and rotary wing and they have testing/scannings devices for the application. If you have any friends in the aircraft maintenance, leasing, financing or flying side, you should ask them as they should be able to hook you up. When I totaled my steel bike, I wondered about the carbon fork and had a mate from the pub take it up to Cranfield where he managed to get it scanned.

Also, the newer generation of airport scanners would probably be useful but getting access will probably be difficult.

Unless you've got friends in the radiology business, forget the hospital. Also, PET and MRI machines are too small for your frame.

Here's a link to some of the lingo.

http://rac.alionscience.com/upload/AgingSystemsTerms.pdf

Thanks Boneman.

You will be happy you did that. I mean, even if you (as buyer) know for a fact that this frame is structurally sound, how much are you going to pay for a structurally challenged 99 model C40? Probably not more than $800. How much would it cost to have the thing shipped back and forth to Europe, or find someone with industrial connections to do the diagnose? If the diagnose shows damage, you have to spend hundreds more to repair, if repairable. And if repaired, you will still have a cosmetically challenged bike. Sometimes you need to learn to let go.

you should check ebay.com for some really good buys on colnago's. There's one place in particular who's been moving a far number of their colnago's at less then wholesale cost.

At first I questioned them because I didn't know who they were, but they're a real shop and an authorized dealer. They range from 1700-2600 for a frame set and I would buy but they dont have anything larger then a 59cm left.

As for your loss, I'm sorry to hear it. That is the exact reason I dont use those racks.