rydabent

gyrine

And in several crashes the CF tail broke off the plane causing the plane to crash. BTW they were French Airbus planes.

rydabent

If you have big bucks go ahead and buy a CF bike. Treat the carefully like fine china they are delicate.

CharlyAlfaRomeo

Maybe, maybe not, but think about what happens if your stem, handlebars or fork were to suddenly break.

None of those parts are where I'd choose to cheap out and besides that you can get a really good aluminum stem that is very close in weight to a carbon one for $25-$30.

cale

This lump of lard, me, ran a carbon fiber frame into a telephone pole at speed and the only thing damaged was the gristle.

knobster

Haha, I didn't know that. I thought they were just old man bikes.

cyclebee

Carbon is a great material and is constantly advancing

Stucky

I never thought I'd be riding a CF bike- but here I am, riding a CF bike with CF bars! I figgered[sic] if the CF fork on my 18 year-old Klein is still hanging-in there.....a late-model CF bike should be able to do at least as good.

I think it has more to do with the construction of the bike, than the material itself. Bikes designed to be uber-light, and which have really thin stays (Like the seat stays on some'a them Cervelos) would likely be at a higher risk for breakage. I don't baby my bikes- but i don't abuse them, either- so hopefully all will be well.

That being said, I really don't see the point to CF though. My aluminum Klein rides/handles/performs every bit as good as my CF Venge- maybe even better.

A bike is a bike.

Darth Lefty 

If I could right now afford a carbon fiber bike, I'd have one.

modelmartin

I bought a ten year olf set of CF handlebars at a swap meet a year ago. I sanded and re-sprayed some clear on it and have put 2500 miles on them so far. They seem to be just fine. I don't currently own a carbon bike but would not hesitate one second to buy one. Some folks are just fiber-phobes!

Stucky

I get SO tired of hearing this in every thread about carbon. Airplane structural components are quite different than bicycles. The plane components are much thicker, and have stiffening structures molded-in, or are built over a skeleton of another material for strength and stiffness. It's much different than a bicycle, which is made of just a few layers of thin carbon, and which has no stiffening structures/skeletons.

The bicycle is supporting 10 times it's weight, and subject to impacts daily, which essentially multiply that weight many times over. The plane isn't.

AlmostTrick

Planes are also carefully monitored with a rigorous inspection/maintenance program. I read that CF parts automatically get replaced after a predetermined amount of “safe” hours.

AlmostTrick

I too had no issues with CF bike parts. I bought an aluminum bike with CF seat stays and fork. Commuted to work on it for 8 years. Then I started to wonder how safe it really is, and did some research. For me, there’s just not enough benefit for any CF bike parts to warrant the cost and increased risk. I realize this may not hold true for others, and I enjoy hearing their opinions, even snarky ones.

Quoted from: The Retrogrouch: Carbon Forks - No Way

The cycling industry isn't doing enough to prevent fork steerer failures.
That’s the opinion of a man who would know: Cervélo co-founder Phil White, whose company suffered a large fork recall in 2008 following fork failures that resulted in multiple crashes and injuries.
Cervélo is not alone in that sorry episode.
The cycling industry has seen a rash of fork steerer-related problems in the last few years, from nearly every major brand sold in North America. Big brands with big test labs have experienced consumer injuries and expensive recalls that the manufacturers say resulted from a mix of engineering and manufacturing flaws.

Hypno Toad

It's truly difficult to see this video and call CF 'delicate' (& if this ^ is sarcasm, you forgot to use the sarcasm font)


I have CF components on a number of bike, also all AL bikes, and all steel bikes. I have yet to see any reason one material causes more concern than another - different maintenance and inspection needs. As soon as I'm done paying for the kids college bills, I have my eye on a custom made CF road bike (ie mid-life-crisis bike).

knobster

While the amount of people that will have an issue with a carbon frame or components will be very, very low, my main worry is the way it fails. Aluminum is similar. After going through a very bad broken leg last year and basically losing the entire year, I'm much more cautious about this kind of thing. Fork or frame fail on your suddenly and it's going to be a bad day for you. I went with steel and titanium due to they simply don't suddenly fail like this. Yeah, not as good performance wise, but I'm simply a recreational cyclist and just want a nice riding bike that might not break my good leg.

AlmostTrick

I just showed the video to one of my coworkers and he asked if I believed it was real.

obed7

I have 3 carbon bikes and one steel bike... it is aluminum that scares me.

dynaryder

True,it's not like they make CF MTB's.

BTW,didn't Salsa have a recall for some of their steel forks not too long ago?

Jarrett2

A picture is worth 1,000 words they say.

Safety glass - gone
Car roof - caved in
Delicate carbon frame - intact

Jarrett2

And there's always this:

dprayvd

BustedCarbon's been inactive for a while, but worth a few chuckles.

Regarding flying machines: if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.