I recently embarked on a new adventure. After seeing some Insta posts of Ravé Bike
https://www.instagram.com/rave.bike/ where he converts bike to full internal, I wanted to try this myself, just for fun...
I decided to also remove all the mounting points I did not use. These include: 2 points on the top tube, one between the chainstays, 5 rack mounts in the back. Since I ride 1x11, the front derailleur exit also had to disappear. On the fork the hole on the side for the brake cable had to go and the 3 mounting points on each side were removed along with a mount for a fender.
I drilled out the rivnuts and filled the holes with carbon. Afterwards I used putty to clean everything up on the part of the bike that stays black and used transparant filler on the parts that will stay visible carbon. I sanded the back side to bare carbon because that part will stay visible under the clear.
After finishing the sanding, I gave everything a last transparant filler layer and sanded it the last time with 600 grit.
For the internal cabling part I stole the concept from Ravé Bike. I made my own carbon plug that goes in the steerer with epoxy. I drilled 2 holes in the steerer where the cable will go in and out. I also had to drill the cable sleeve in the fork to get the front brake cable to enter the steerer. I reinforced the bottom of the steerer with 3 layers of carbon before drilling the cable exit.
That's the state of the frame for the moment. I plan to build a DIY paint tent next week and hopefully will be able to paint everything next weekend. The front part will get burnt copper metallic and the rear will stay clear. The entire frame will also get a layer of a golden mica/pearl over the base coat and before the clear.
Oh yeah, aI also made a carbon cover for the bottom of the frame (the original is plastic).
Handlebar and seatpost will be painted in the burnt orange and cranks have been sanded and will be painted clear.
To answer the most obvious question: "yes I know this can be dangerous, but critical locations are reinforced, so I don't see much of a problem".
There are too much pictures to share here, so please visit this folder for the pics:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3djodAWJ3smmAVRN8
