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I'm looking at a CX frame that has carbon seatstays. I'm concerned about the durability of the carbon stays on a CX bike that I'll race. Is that not a worry, or no more of one than, say, chipping a carbon fork? Just seems like all steel or all aluminum is more bombproof. I know some high-end bikes (Ridley, for one) use carbon seatstays. Anybody ride those? Thoughts?
HuckMeat
08-26-04, 10:51 PM
I ride a dean with carbon seatstays - I've not actually scratched them up really, (although it seems the ti has it's share of scratches). Anyway, I've ridden it hard for a year, with not a single problem, and the ride is very very nice, esp on washboard and the high frequency stuff.
For sure there would be more durable bikes, a crosscheck, or even an all AL frame. However, most of the race frames are getting pretty thin walls now-a days. A good AL frame would weigh a fair bit less than my frame, but I was looking for a mix between durability and comfort, and I found it.
In my case, dean was local, and their support has always been fantastic, so I didn't really give much thought to the durability. However, it has been bombproof. I believe a lot of bike makers buy their seatstays for road bikes from the same place. The cross stays may be the same.
Probably depends on how you crash too - If you crash and get run over a lot, the seatstays would see a little more action than frequent trail endo's... :)