caloso

If they can make it illegal to keep a dog in a car during the heat of the summer, they can make it illegal to keep a bike there too.

arsw1

Watch out! Al dilapidates...

.... click on pic to enjoy BF goodness...

PiratePete

Carbon fiber reinforced thermoset polymer would be a little more anally precise.

2manybikes

Don't mount any co2 cartridges to your CF frame in the car in the sun.

forensicchemist

remind me to re-read this thread often....it's quite funny!

DrPete 

Someone should tell NASA to stop building spacecraft with it.

shabbasuraj

CF will explode over 94.34 celcius, to prevent it from doing so you should do this to your bike before the 94.34 magic number.

cyclintom

87 degrees C. is about 190 degree F. It ain't likely that you'll heat your bike that high.

However, epoxy resin normally has a softening point above 115 degree C if memory serves so I assume that 87 is some sort of book limit.

cyclintom

There are resins that have to be heated above 1000 degrees F. to begin burning. If you believe that your bicycle needs to be made from those perhaps you might want to contact some NASA subcontractors.

DrPete 

You bring up a valuable point. For some reason people will argue the differences between Reynolds 853 and Reynolds 953, but when it comes to CF people somehow think it's all the same material...

sogood

The question is whether there's any temperature dependent weakening/softening of the resin within CF before the full melt-down. If that temperature is at 200 deg C, then who cares. But if it's something much lower, then there's some concern. Except for Cyclintom above touching on this point, all previous comments are rather amateurish with respect to the topic at hand.

CastIron

Well, I am an amateur.

DrPete 

It's because the bull about the dangers of CF, spontaneous meltdowns, delaminating, etc. come up so often that most of us just laugh it off and make "amateurish" comments.

caloso

Oh, it gets pretty danged hot here. (But it's a dry heat.)

cyclintom

Discounting crash damage:

Almost the only reasons that steel frame fail is bad workmanship or seriously bad design. Most steel frames (until the latest Reynolds SS stuff that's only .020" wall thickness) are overbuilt and it is bad workmanship such as seriously overheating the frame causing the steel to degrade that is the underlying base of failure.

One of the shops I used to go to had cut open many lugged frames and showed why some of them fail - most of the frames even by very highly prized foreign builders were not fitted into the lugs. The frame tubes were cut off square on the ends and pushed into the lugs - what the sucker doesn't see won't hurt him. Mind you - some of these frames were from the biggest name Italian builders.

Aluminum frames on the other hand will ALL fail sooner or later. There is no fatique limit to aluminum below which there is no "wear". Now it may be that aluminum frames made by Cannondale and the like, will never reach the point where they fail because they're built so strong. But as someone noted. Bianchi is noted for having a lot of bicycle frames fail. And I've had experience with both steel and aluminum frames from that mark failing and the manufacturer being rather uncooperative.

Carbon fiber on the other hand, has a very high fatigue limit but strangely enough as carbon fiber fails it gets more flexible as steel used to be falsely described by those without knowledge - or more likely those trying to sell more frames.

The problem lies in the push for ever lighter frames and components. All you need to see is the effect of a broken fork, fractured frame or sudden failure of a handlebar or pedal spindle to make you a believer in overbuilding some components regardless of weight.

sogood

Yes, I can understand how those ridiculous statements can drive people up the wall. But surly there are some data on the relationship b/n temperature and CF's mechanical property.

Maybe I should Google for it...

daytonian

PiratePete

Burning bikes is the coolest thing to do these days.

dekalbSTEEL

That's what he gets for running Shimano on a Bianchi!

'nother

I'm sure I'll regret this, but what the heck...

Fixed that for ya. Bad CF designs, bad Al designs, and, as you say, even bad steel designs, can all fail. It's not about the material.

zonatandem

C/f is used on the space shuttle; used on commercial aircraft; used in racing cars; used on bicycles . . .

Will G

Lots of carbon fiber on military jets. Skin temps approach 400 degrees at low altitude and high speed and I haven't heard of too many complaints.

munkyv22

The idea of CFRP melting in the sun is just stupid. Thank you.

This thread makes the baby Jebus cry.

orcanova

If I die on my bike...due to catostrophic frame failure, a hungry bear, or my less than perfect counter-steering sent me off a cliff, then I will probably have died happy (at least the part right before the "Oh S***!) part.

And then people can walk up to my Mum and whatnot and hug her and say "He's in a better place now. He died doing what he loved."

munkyv22

I would prefer to die at like 90 in my sleep, but if I had to make a second choice, it would be on the bike.