Today at the Wasing Estate race there was a crash…. Just off the start line, someone went over the handlebars, the rest of the pack went down like dominoes.

Next thing I notice is a rider picking up his CF Rocky mountain bike, which has completley snapped in half! 😯

Depends on what you mean by "strong". CF is VERY strong in some ways. However it's not very good at handling impacts in some cases. It does worry me about a big stack on my road bike as I can't afford to replace it. I'll be a lot happier when and if I can afford to have a nice steel road frame built up. I've nothing against CF and love my Planet X but I do get worried about a big fall on it and losing the frame. I'd still consider a CF On-One 456 if I had the money and could afford a replacement if I broke it.

****.

Well, this kinda Pi**es all over the argument I was having in another thread!

I would argue that the frame wasn't perfect and may have had plenty of other knocks. As I said in the previous thread, if they're on their way out you probably wouldn't know until it happens.

Ally also snaps.

CF is perfectly OK for frames, if however you get a bang in the wrong spot or direction then failure can happen.

This is also the case with Ally.

The impact damage of CF is as much to do with the resin as the fibre. The stiffness comes form the fibre the toughness comes form the resin. as soon as the engineering world perfects through thickness stitching the better the impact performance.

HAving seen my Ibis mojo sailover my head and bounce down a trail a fair few times I have no issues with CF in a bike frame mate!! PLus that has now been cut open and looked at By ibis (unrelated issue with the paintlike the long termer on stw)and n issues found add I'm 120kgs and I think CF is ok mate!!

Well it still hasn't put me off getting a CF bike next (more then likely a Canondale Lefty high mod 2) It just shocked me TBH.

I have broken a steel frame, an aluminium frame and a titanium frame, but am yet to break either of my carbon frames. I am happy to stick with CF.

Agreed, I have broken all Scott G-Zero Ally frames but cannot break the Strike or Genius frames (Although the rear Ally swingarm has been damaged twice!)

Fwiw, I saw a similar pile up at an nps a few years back. One rider got up with his alu frame crushed and nearly folded flat on both top and down tubes near the middle where something had fallen onto it. Bin job…

All frames will break if loaded in ways they're not designed for.