CEN Testing, Carbon bikes, Clydesdales and me

First off i am a bit set in my ways. I have never had a carbon bike and have never wanted one that much. Dont get me wrong they obviously look nice but most high end bikes (at least the ones i like) these days have carbon frames

(just re-read that and yes it sounds daft)

What im saying is i am possibly in the market for a new bike and want it kitted out with XT, good forks, an RP23 shock and a nice wheelset but when looking at the manufacturers bikes (that i like) with this kit they all have carbon frames i.e. Lapierre Zesty, Spesh Stumpjumper and the Trek Fuel Ex.

So then i got to thinking about this CEN testing bikes have to pass now and the main reason for me not wanting to jump on a carbon bike which is that im around the 15 stone mark and would go mental if i fell off the bike at a stupid angle and put a hole in a carbon frame.

Can someone who knows a wee bit about this CEN testing tell me some info about it and maybe some of the larger gents who ride carbon frames tell me of their experiences when falling on top of a carbon frame.

I understand the frames now have to be made more solid but is it in all areas or just some. Obviously a bike is designed to take loads from certain directions when being ridden but say i fall off and land side on with the bike, do these areas of the bike now need to be strengthened due to CEN regulations?

cheers for any input guys

edit Trek do the Aluminium Fuel Ex but their paint schemes are goppin’!

Are you thinking EN14733 and the like? They don’t test for point impacts – the tests are more to do with bolting the frame down then impacting the forks to see if the frame snaps.

The CEN test only deals with loads from riding and crashing into things. It doesn’t deal with impacts to the frames.

But Scott battered 2 genius downtubes into each other, the aluminium one gave way before the CFRP.

Santa Cruz tested some used CFRP frames and they were still stronger than the new aluminium ones.

Cannondale took a hammer to something in a vice (cant remember what)

I’d not worry about it, if anything CFRP should bounce better than aluminium which will just dent. The only difference is some naysayer on the internet will then tell you it’s ruined whereas a 50p sized divit in an aluminium tube would get the internet thumbs up.

Here’s what happens when 2 ten stone weaklings collide:

😉

sorry Ben i have no idea what this is “EN14733” is that the new CEN testing regs bikes must meet?

http://www.cen.eu/cen/News/Spotlight%20on%20standards/Archive/Pages/Bicycle.aspx

I have a copy of EN 14766 it is essentially a number of lab tests that frames and components have to survive. Deflection tests on headtubes and applying forces to the bottom bracket to simulate a careless landing by a heavy rider, that sort of thing.

Like most standards it offers a basic assurance that the frame/components wont fail catastrophically but as we all know things break when we’re jra

You probably won’t break it. If you do then you probably would have broken an alu frame.

All carbon is not created equal.

I have a copy of EN 14766

That’s the beastie. I’d agree that an impact that’d break carbon would easily crack aluminium.

interestingly there isnt a bottom out test in the cen regs, they mostly just try and rip the head tube off with unrealistically high loads. So in answert to your question as i understand it CEN makes chuff all difference to your ‘falling over and cracking the tube from impact’ scenario.

(long time Mojo SL rider and dont give a chuff about whether my frame is carbon or not its a mountain bike it gets ridden to within an inch of its life 🙂 )

14 stone (of pure muscle;-) ) here, ride a carbon mojo HD, no problems so far. Bike has been crashed in various different ways, has a few scratches in the lacquer/paintwork , but still seems fine to me. It doesnt get treated any differently to an aluminium bike.

A mate has a Titus FTM carbon and that is also fine doing pretty much the same riding that i do, probably crashed about the same amount too.

My old enduro (aluminium) cracked at a weld.

I dont really get this ‘carbon’ is weak line of thinking. Sure you can buy a carbon bike that is built super super light and it might brake if you bash it into a rock at the wrong angle, but that would probably be the same if you did the same to its aluminium equivalent.

Does everyone agree that some aluminium/steel/ti bikes are stronger than others, and therefore buys the bike that suits what you intend to do with it? so why is carbon any different?

carbon is not unbreakable, but in the vast majority of the ways that you crash a mountain bike it’ll be as damage resistant or more so than an ‘equivalent’ aluminium/steel/ti bike.

Cheers for the input guys. One of my other worries though is cracking the frame and being unable to ride it home whereas a dented frame would normally be fine. Having said all of that though I have never fallen and dented a frame in 19 years of mtbing. I guess I’ll start looking at carbon bikes then 😉

Just buy a Ventana. 🙂

I’d trust carbon more than alloy.

you might also want to ook at din+ cube and canyon make their frames pass this much stricter test

“to simulate a careless landing by a heavy rider”
iirc that particular test is something like a langing to flat with an ‘acceleration’ of 9G ? (ie fighter pilots black out 5-6ish G?)

(Awaits correction)

My ’07 carbon Stumpjumper rocker links snapped (magnesium alloy). The seatstays then crashed into the back of the ‘ladies legs’ (the part of the seattube that makes a hole in the seattube around the shock. They appeared battered. Specialized reckoned they’d be alright. They’ve yet to break (touch wood)

Downtube is also covered in dings/chinks/etc from rock strikes. In places carbon shows through the lacquer

and upto 15.5stone during ownership (creeping back up .. )

100kg/6ft2 here. Does that make me a Clydesdale? Samuri referred to me as a big fella but I dont feel it!

Wierd term Clydesdale.

I’d be more worried about running air springs in forks and shocks than frame weakness, tbh.

To answer your question why worry?

It luck or clumsy nature not weight that kills bike/bits.

My XTR-only rear mech lasted 11 continous years. Plane holds, no cleaning and bad storage etc etc

~ fatbloke