Folding bike?
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Carbon fibre its rubbish
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Posted 1 year ago #
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There's carbon and there's carbon. You can squeeze the rear end of a Yeti ASR5 without any bother (I've tried), but give it a go on a Santa Cruz Blur. Absolutely solid. There's a reason good stuff costs a bit more.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Oh well. I'll be riding the 3 Peaks on a 1200g full carbon frame. ** shrugs **
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have always stayed away from the plastic bikes but rode with a chap the other day who had built up one of the new On One 456 Carbon frames. Nice bike....he gave it a good hammering and it was very impressive-none of that usual hollow sounding noises from the frame but still really light but compliant. Still not sure as to logevity for people of my weight so I am going to hang on to see how they perform in the long term before I invest.
I must say that the bike that I have seen most broken is from Gary Fisher brand where the carbon rear swingarms have snapped.Posted 1 year ago # -
Someone once said theres no such thing as a bad material just a bad application for it
On the other hand it does mystify me why people would deem that aerospace Quality defines a good product
Those Chinese bikes everyone seems to be cranking out for a third the price of a uk made frame surely can't be that bad can they.....would people pay more for a product 3 times times the price for a uk made and designed frame.
Posted 1 year ago # -
sorry Coleman, been waiting to use that for ages
Posted 1 year ago # -
Indeed ..there is a website dedciated to failed CF iirc
never trust a website that spells fibre "fiber" ffs - it's all photoshop!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Phyba.
I have absolutely nothing useful or constructive to say.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I agree with the OP, carbon is bollocks.
Posted 1 year ago # -
which are these UK made bikes you speak of?
How bigger role will CEN testing now have? regardless of material?
Posted 1 year ago # -
It was more a question would you pay 3 times the price for a frame
IMO the CEN testing is a moot point when it comes to carbon frames
Posted 1 year ago # -
CNT is supposed to negate the weave issue"/lay/pattern weakness in cf?
Posted 1 year ago # -
On One 456 carbon, smashed it down rock gardens at Laggan Wolftracks even done the world cup downhill course at at Fort William in 8 mins on it had loads of crashes on it done large drop offs and jumps and its still in one peice, probably done more than most people would do on a bike like this and its perfect, got my 36 RC2 Fit forks on it big 2.5 tyres and it suits me great
The frame passes all the toughest CEN tests so im more than happy with carbon, i know they are hand rolled so one may pass the CEN tests but obviously they are all slightly diffrent in tests.Posted 1 year ago # -
by a 1860's beam engine(ellsworth).Thats my rant over for today,feel better now
Have you not seen the pics of the broken ones
Posted 1 year ago # -
I remember Truth frames saying you had to use an inline post, the seat tube wasn't strong enough for a layback one. Great.
Carbon all the way. If you don't want to buy one, don't, no one's forcing you!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Done a lot of stuff with carbon fibre on rallycars etc. It is incredibly strong for its weight and torsionally stiff. Its the intended application that always seems to be the problem. Unless the frame or component has a lot of protection say from a outer coating of resin etc they do seem to be compromised by a point loading causing a chip or crack. A friend of mine bought a Trek EX9 carbon hardtail and they left off the plate that protects the BB area from chain rub. When he commented that the BB area had a few scratches on the fibre off the chain they said it would be a good idea if he saved up and bought a new frame just in case. This was a 2.5K bike FFS! The bike had only just had its first service. I know, you would have thought that they would have set up the derailler so the chain stayed on the granny gear. As for getting a CF bike I could only justify one if I lost a shed load of weight. Steel is real for me at the moment.
Posted 1 year ago # -
With carbon, pick your manufacturer carefully. There are only a handful of carbon bike brands worth riding, were they are made properly, Time, Parlee and Calfee. There are a couple of others but cannot remember their names.
Posted 1 year ago # -
TheDoctor, anecdotal or hard facts?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have long thought about just doing carbon frame repairs rather than design
Posted 1 year ago # -
can we have an original thread please?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've broken lots and lots of bike bits. Frames, cranks, wheels, bars. All aluminium and steel. Never broken anything made out of carbon.
I had an accident on my road bike around christmas time. Not trusting the carbon forks afterwards despite them looking fine, I replaced them. Once I had the old pair in my hands I remembered watching a video of some chap hitting a carbon frame and a steel frame with a hammer. The steel one came out a lot worse. So I decided to try for myself.
After some proper hard wellying with a lump hammer, all I'd managed to do was knock some of the laquer off the forks. The carbon wasn't even dented.
Posted 1 year ago # -
A place where I used to work were making there own CF road bike with a well known bike manufacturer, in the process we cut up several brand new CF road frames they supplied and they all had cracks/de-laminations. I would never ride CF after I saw that.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have a mojo frame waiting to be built up.. but now i'm not so sure... yes, seriously...
Posted 1 year ago # -
I know a man who smashed the buggery out his mojo in a very low speed stack on northshore, got a replacement from IBIS (for a knockdown price)and sold it as fast as possible, then went back to alloy.
Hope that helps
Posted 1 year ago # -
So the way really is CNT
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thanks Tazzy, ebay advert appearing next week.
So the way forward really is
CNTcarbon, no thanks...FIFY
Posted 1 year ago # -
Rickmeister - Please tell me your decision to abandon a carbon frame is based on reliable evidence and not the random ramblings and opinions found on this forum!
Posted 1 year ago # -
CNT is good if you want something which may be as harmful to health as asbestos when it comes to the manufacture of it and any cutting of bars etc.. there is a lot of research being undertaken by various occupational health and safety groups and research bodies around the world.
at least cutting some alloy bars to length isn't going to give you pleural plaques in your lungs in the future
Posted 1 year ago # -
Well its either that or smoke weed (your local lbs) or fire ak47's at someone
Posted 1 year ago # -
aluminum production isn't all smiles...
brain clouds anyone?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ali swing arm failed on my Heckler (Pinch bolt type) which was coming up to 3 years old and more recently the rear end on Yeti ASR 5 which was 3 months old failed big time. Not to bothered though as both were replaced under warranty from Santa Cruz and Yeti. The way in which the carbon rear end went though was a bit worrying and it pains me to say it that others did tell me so prior to shelling out arond £1700 for the frame.
Oh well, i'm on to a 2011 575 now so watch this space Posted 1 year ago # -
You can make stuff badly out of any material.
As for longevity - does carbon not have good fatigue properties?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hey laney
Posted 1 year ago # -
carbon has excellent fatigue properties.
It also allows you yo tune the flexibility with the material as well as shape so you can prevent overly stiff areas which can lead yo failures.
As for CNTs - there is hundreds of research programs all over the world (I am doing one right now) around CNTs in epoxy resin. The benefits of CNTs in carbon fibre laminates is still not fully understood or optimised or used to it's fullest. You can apply the CNTs to the fibres to make them hairy or in the resin to change it's properties and you can do lots of stuff like functionalisation to change the bonds.
I worry about consumer products with CNTs in - especially ones that people cut. They should be fully enclosed in resin so not really a problem but there is a risk. We have to incinerate all waste with CNT contamination.
Easton used to slap Zyvex CNT logos all over their stuff (zyvex has been in the industry for years doing CNT dispersions and resin). Recently they seem to have dropped the logos from their 2011 monkeylite and Haven ranges and I would like to know why. I suspect they are using a new resin system that is better than the old one with the added CNTs. As a nano technology specialist I shouldnt be downplaying them but sometimes other things are better - it is my job to make the nano stuff even better again.
Posted 1 year ago # -
After much resurch(down the pub) i've com to the conclusion that its mainly the junctions between two materials ie carbon and ali that are the main points of failure and after talking to a guy who repairs wheelchairs, which often use the same materials,he has often found that there's oxidisation on the ail surface that causes the bond to break.So my conclusion is stick to one material and all will be well in your world.
Posted 1 year ago #
Topic Closed
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