idc

My main bike came with a carbon fork with aluminum steerer (and dropouts). A crack appeared in the aluminum dropout in the first 12 months and I had to get it warrantied. The replacement ended up being a full carbon fork. Woohoo!

GregTR

Actually it does:

rebel1916

Carbon (from a reputable manufacturer, and BD uses Kinesis, which is) will be stronger for a given weight than steel. It is crazy strong. You will be fine. https://www.pinkbike.com/news/santa-c...-test-lab.html

DVC45

Interesting and quite convincing test. But that was an MTB frame. ' wonder how a road bike frame would fair?
Also, the way the failure happened was quite interesting. Aluminum = buckled vs Carbon = shatttered.

Miles2go

Just another data point: My commuter has a CF fork and has been abused for many years with no failure or signs indicating that I should replace it. Many cross bikes, designed for racing come with CF forks. Cross racing makes most commuting look like an afternoon knitting club.

caloso

Road forks are pretty tough too. Watch the Spring Classics, particularly Paris-Roubaix. I guarantee that the cobbles of the Arenberg Forest sector are rougher than any of our commutes.

rebel1916

Well, the test compared mtb to mtb. A road frame would most likely be lighter and probably not quite as tough no matter what material it was made of. And, as much as people like to discuss mode of failure, you ain't riding either of those frames home afterwards...

rebel1916

But, but, mode of failure, steel is repairable in a village in Guatemala while on tour, um, um, friction shifters!

ItsJustMe

I just got a BD bike with a carbon fork. It's made by Kinesis. I think they make a lot of major name carbon components, and I think they make most of the carbon forks for BD.

I was looking specifically for a carbon fork on my bike. I wound up going with a Windsor Fens. People have been telling me for years that I should buy a road bike. I have been looking locally for 5 years but I'm too cheap to get past the $2000 pricing for what I'm looking at, so it was either BD or nothing. I decided I'm willing to spend $800 to see what the fuss is about. I may find that I like it, or not. It's pretty if nothing else. But given that I do ZERO recreational riding, 100% of my riding is to work and back or on errands, I think it's likely to be "not" but who knows. The people who were trying to talk me into it are all 100% recreational, 0% commuting, but hey, maybe I'll get my commute under 30 minutes for the first time.

ivan_yulaev

I worked in a cafeteria for a year and we used largely steel silverware. Got a mild understanding of it and saw failed forks/knives/spoons with regularity.

I still think riding with a steel fork is like running with kitchen shears.

Miles2go

LOL.

I was in the business of playing with the best fighter jets in the world for many, many years. In some pursuits, like professional auto racing and fighter aircraft, gear which is designed to be as light as possible is put under the greatest stress. Things often fail and sometimes fail catastrophically. These aircraft rarely fly more than a couple of missions in a row before needing one or more repairs due to failure, not counting normal wear items.

Bicycle commuting is not one of these pursuits. Nor is the art of kitchen utensils but that was a good laugh.

Wilfred Laurier

It depends on the brand and the specific product - Specialized and Trek et al have the forks on their highest quality and top-of-the-line bikes made to their spec, but probably use the manufacturer's stock designs, or some slight variation of them, for the less expensive bikes.

The methods of construction will all be pretty similar (unless you are paying for something different like OCLV or Zerts or something). The manufacturers in Asia have made their reputation on making products that companies can safely spec without too much fear of lawsuits. This is not to say that there are not some bad products made, but they are definitely a rare exception in the modern bike market. There just are not masses of defective forks snapping under people in 2013.

DVC45

True. But, I would rather have a frame or fork that would buckle, than something that would snap/shatter.

tjspiel

Considering the forces it takes to do either I think the least of your problems would be whether your frame buckled or shattered. You will be on the ground regardless and your frames/forks are trashed either way.

acidfast7

EPBe Pruüftechnik should be used to compare the BD forks to non-BD samples. going by brand name is

https://www.efbe.de/enindex.php

results: https://www.efbe.de/testergebnisse/fu...p?typ=3&sort=1

Miles2go

I'll just remind everyone that the first mass produced *fully carbon fiber" framed bicycle was being sold over 26 years ago. I knew and regularly rode with 5 people who owned the Kestrel 4000 back in the day. Before that bike, there were many carbon tubed frames from other manufacturers. CF is not new technology.

In the last 30 years I've never known anyone that has been maimed, disfigured or impaled as a result of the decision to ride these bikes or use these components.

That said, I'm sure there are some stupid light component failure examples you can use to stoke distrust in the technology if you want. This wouldn't be a CF problem though, it would be a stupid light problem, which we can see examples of in just about any material.