Normally, we don’t feature cases that are mostly inspection-based, but this one happens to be an exception for such an incredible bike. This custom carbon fiber tandem arrived at Ruckus after a dreaded roof-rack-meets-garage-door-frame type accident. It was absolutely NOT the case of the original fork or frame failing, for they were beautifully and expertly constructed, but the resulting accident caused the fork to nearly disintegrate. So, smartly, the customer thought it was a wise idea to have us inspect the rest of the frame. It is completely custom and only one exists in the world, so they came to us hoping we could save this incredible frame…luckily, we didn’t have to.
A little about the brand: based in Worcestershire, UK, Filament Cycles recently renamed from Craddock Cycles and no longer bears the last name of the owner/operator. Filament Bikes is a completely custom production outfit creating absolutely stunning frames. Richard, the owner, said this in an interview last year about his rebranding, “Filament refers not only to the carbon fiber that I work with, it’s also the cycling thread that we have running through our lives”.
As you can see from the fork images, the accident was pretty substantial. As always, we first ultrasound scanned the frame, which was a pretty exhaustive process involving what is essentially the tubing of two bikes. We found absolutely no damage to the frame, undoubtedly due to the amazing quality production. Since the frame was just perfectly structurally sound, we sent it directly to our paint department for lots of wet sanding and buffing out the minor superficial blemishes from the accident.
We ended up having to source a brand new fork for the frame, so we contacted Columbus and ordered the exact same frame as the original. We then spent quite a bit of time paint matching the original pink hue and re-applied it to the new fork. All said, our customer made the right call after an accident. If you’re involved in a crash it is always wise to have your bike professionally scanned. It was unfortunate that the fork shattered, but we’re always more than happy to help source new ones and paint them to match.
Hands down, this is one of the most beautiful frames we’ve seen in person and we were thrilled to find out that it was structurally sound after an accident. In fact, it was pure tandemonium.