Sort it out, Specialized.
When I got my loverly carbon Specialized Roubaix, I didn’t suspect that my 5 year old Orbea had a feature that the new bike lacked.
On most bikes there are cables for the brakes and gears routing past the head tube. On the Orbea they thought about this and added protection for the paint just where the cables might rub. On the Specialized they either weren’t aware of this or didn’t care!
After only a few hundred km of riding the Specialized shows marks on the headtube as shown below. The Orbea after many thousands of km does not.
Marks from cable rubbing on Specialized Roubaix
Duct tape to protect the frame from further scratches on Specialized Roubaix
small plastic disk to prevent cable rub damage on the Orbea
Umm, my 2008 Specialized Roubaix has the plastic protection strip shown on your Orbea above.
You may need to check to see if 1) they are on a sticker strip with the manual or 2) why your LBS didn’t think to utilise them when the built and sold you the bicycle.
By: Craig McGregor on July 6, 2011
at 11:39 am
I always check any new bike for areas of potential rubbing.
I then apply 3M Helicopter tape to prevent it. I thought every cyclist did.
http://www.speedsport.co.uk/tesatapeproduct.html?BIKE-PROTECTION-TAPE—1m-x-50mm—3M-HELICOPTER-TAPE-16
By: Derek Nemo on July 8, 2011
at 1:11 am
I had the same thing and mine has rubbed down to the metal, “helicopter” tape is the stuff to use!
By: Paul on August 5, 2011
at 9:32 pm