New kid on the block, Agaromba, is a bike brand with a difference – it offers free lifetime repair of crash damage to its carbon frames.
Agaromba frames come from LA-based MMFG, or Montenegro Manufacturing, which has been making carbon frames and components since 2013 and also repairs other makers’ carbon frames.
Frustrated with the expense and waste involved in the usual crash replacement offered by bike makers, Hernán Montenegro wanted to offer a more sustainable alternative. If you damage an Agaromba frameset, Montenegro says that he will fix it free of charge if you can show that it’s the legitimate result of a crash, although, as always, there are some exceptions.
MMFG says that it does everything it can to keep carbon fibre frames on the road and that a properly repaired frame can be just as strong as a pristine new one. There are shots of repaired bikes on its Instagram feed, including a Colnago that was missing a large chunk of its right seatstay.
Montenegro says that the classic approach to a warranty repair is to sell you a new frame at a discount, with bike makers incentivising those dealing with the repair to do this. But he says that a professional carbon repair is a fraction of the price of a new frame.
An alternative to landfill
According to MMFG, when you replace a crashed frame, the old frame is usually cut in half to make it unusable, with the two halves sent to landfill. There are a small number of companies that will recycle old carbon fibre frames, but the mix of fibre and resin is difficult to reuse.
We’ve more on BikeRadar about carbon fibre reuse and about Specialized and Trek’s carbon recycling. As Specialized points out, bike makers aren’t the only producers of waste carbon fibre, with established recycling programmes in aerospace.
Specialized says that the process starts by shredding the carbon into shorter lengths, then burning off the epoxy resin in an oxygen-free environment. But goes on to say that there’s not yet enough demand to keep up with the supply of recycled fibre, so it’s looking for new ways to reuse it.
MMFG isn’t the only company offering carbon fibre repair and it’s an option you might consider if you crash a bike yourself or think that a second-hand bike you’re considering buying has been damaged in a crashed.
Montenegro says that his custom carbon framesets offer all that leading brands do, too, with features such as internal cable routing, Di2 compatibility, disc-brake mounts and thru-axles. All the framesets are custom painted in-house.
Currently, there’s limited stock available of the Classic/Romantic gravel bike frameset, with prices starting at $2,300.
You can read more about MMFG and its frames on its site.
