I have bought a set of almost new 10sp QS Centaur brifters for $45. The right one was perfect while the left (front) one was broken in crash, exactly like the old 8sp set my son has broken. The previous owner attempted gluing but failed. At first I thought I will put the new brifter in the chassis of the Daytona one I had, but the chassis’ are different, I thought I’d rather attempt gluing than cutting through it to make it fit. The material of the chassis looks like Rynite - carbon reinforced thermoplastic.
- disassembling is easy, especially when the lever was partially separated, all it it takes is unscrewing 2 hex bolts. Mind the position of two metal ratchet wheels your odds of putting it back together so it works are 1/16 unless you can figure it out or remember) and two springs: one for the lever return in front, the other, flat, backing the plastic cable wheel. BTW I guess the stop of the front spring causes Edit: breaking in this place in crash, adding to the stress.
1a) I had to clean the residue of the glue from prior repair attempt, the brifter looked like this:
- after cleaning, I drilled two sets of holes, one for the supporting wires, the other for carbon fiber strands, reinforcing the resin. I dremelled out about .7mm of material from where the pieces meet, so I could tie them together with carbon strands and have room for resin saturating the fibers.
3)The parts didn’t fit anymore after dremelling, so I fixed them with twisted wires, locking them in the right position.
4)When the resin was half set, I cut out the laminate where it covered the holes for locking the grips , I cured it at 120F for 24 h (stage pictured), I cut the excess of the wires at this stage. I have cleaned the residue where visible, grinded out the excess of the resin and reassembled the thing.
Finished product:
You will die it you try it at home.