Got a nice, expensive carbon fiber frame? Worried that those cable housings will wear right through the first two layers within a week of bringing it home from the shop (trust us, it happens)?
Frameskin has developed protective film kits to protect against that and other road and trail debris (rocks, sticks, your heel, etc.) that can all too quickly and easily rub through the clear coat and top layers of carbon. They have kits for Trek, Niner, Pivot, Specialized, Cannondale and many other major brands, plus a lot of smaller ones and brands we U.S. folks rarely hear of, too, like Surly, Carver, Silverback, etc. And they’re working on more all the time.
Each frame kit covers the basic areas of wear like the headtube, downtube, stays, top tube, and each is custom cut to fit exactly and virtually disappear. But that’s not all…check out their Framewrap rubber kit after the break…
Their Framewrap is a “self amalgamating rubber tape” that stretches into position and bonds to itself to form a solid rubber piece. Sure, you could wrap a used inner tube around your chainstay and fix it with electrical tape, but this seems like a lot more permanent, elegant solution that won’t trap water and mud underneath.
They also offer the clear Frameskin films for cranksets and forks. Having worn through about four layers of carbon on the new carbon SRAM X0 cranks in a weekend (largely due to the plastic buckle section on the inside of 2010 model Bontrager MTB shoes and some mud, not really any fault on the cranks’ part), we can see the instant appeal of a $10 set of protective strips to prolong the life of some much more expensive parts.
They make film kits for a number of aluminum cranks and frames, too, to keep everything looking shiny and new. Prices range from $6 – $10 (AUD) for a crank kit to $50 and up for frame kits. They also offer generic kits so you can cut to size on other frames or parts.
