halfspeed

Right, because fork recalls never happened before carbon Lambert and Viscount Bicycles.

Bob Dopolina 

1. When 'crabon assplodes' threads get rolling 'steel is real' gets played. I just jumped ahead to that crap and pointed out that steel breaks, too. You might also note that I road some high end steel and liked it. And I will again when I get around to another custom frame.

2. Early carbon is not current carbon. You have no point. Oh, and do you remember the Syncros forks that failed and caused serious faceplants? So I guess we can rule that material, too? What about the early bonding issues with alloy? Yup, failures. So no alloy? I guess we are left with what? Bamboo?

3. Recalls...have a look here. Notice how many of these recalls are NOT CARBON? Steel forks, carbon TT bars and some frames but also chains, hubs, dynamos, disc calipers, suspension forks, road bike calipers, fricken bike racks and baskets all coming from mid price point bikes, folding bikes, ebikes, high end road, low end mtb...blah, blah, blah.

Stop embarrassing yourself.

3alarmer 

...not at all. If you recall, these were forks that were new technology, less proven than CF is right now.

How in the world do you think this is some refutation of the many past and current fork recalls, many of them carbon ?

If anything, you just made another point in the case for steel as a well developed bicycle frame material technology,
that is well understood and seems less prone to instantaneous catastrophic failure.

3alarmer 

,,,why should I be embarassed ? I'm talking to a guy who says, in consecutive statements:

and then links to all the recalls:

I don't really think we're communicating, so at this point, I'll wish you a good evening.


I hope you are sincere in your desires to broaden the base of the industry as you state, because you
are certainly in a much better position to do so than almost anyone else here. But this insistence
on the defense of carbon composite frames to the exclusion of any legitimate criticism does you no credit.

Bob Dopolina 

You didn't follow the link, did you? My point was that there were several recalls on STEEL FORKS as well as products from every other category you could think of included bike baskets!

Agreed.

I always have.

We work on carbon but we also supply products for other categories like a FG/SS brand in Korea, disc brake parts for a mid price point Euro MTB brand and we may start working on wheels for baby joggers. Our only problem is that being in Taiwan, and NOT working with Chinese vendors, makes it harder for us to compete in the lower end of the market. By virtue of where we are the products we have access to, and can make money from, are at the upper end of the market.

znomit

I bet there was some carbon inside those recalled steel forks.

Rowan

I see what you did there.

IBTD

halfspeed

The point is everything breaks and spontaneous asplosions are extremely rare in any material.

Dudelsack 

It's getting real in the Whole Foods parking lot!
I got my skill and you know it gets sparked a lot
I'm on my grind homie, it's on my mind homie...

joejack951

That's funny. Cast aluminum was cutting edge in the 1980s? Hardly. Unlike carbon fiber which seems almost tailor-made for making bicycle frames and forks, cast aluminum was simply a dumb choice for such a critical component. The real question is: do you know why?

RJM

Ah yes, the "go to another forum if you don't ride the same way I like to ride" argument.

rjones28 

There is a debate going on in this thread?

rjones28 

Iyam what Iyam and that's all that Iyam

rpenmanparker 

Do you know what you are quoting?

rjones28 

I do. But please tell me anyway, because I'm sure I'm wrong.

#41ier

531Aussie

What alu frame did you have? Old-school, super-stiff?
I've had some great alu frames.

Bob Dopolina 

It was a frame being developed by the factory sponsoring my team that season. I don't know if it ever went I to production.

I did ride a Cannondale years ago for a few weeks and didn't like it either.

rpenmanparker 

In the Judaic scripture (aka Old Testament) book of Exodus, Moses, in front of the burning bush asks The Eternal what is His name. "I am what I am," was the reply.

Brian Ratliff

The 90s called. I think they want you back. Carbon fiber composite has been around a while now. At this point, CF has been around longer than aluminum ever was at the top levels of bike racing. The last time an aluminum frame won the TDF was 1998 (Pantani). Aluminum lasted only about 10 years in the late 80s into the late 90s. Once you pass the year 2000, it's almost all CF. (Just for reference, it is now 2014.)

I remember in college, in one of my mechanical design classes, we did a materials trade-off study for bicycle frames. CF was the clear winner. If you recall, Lance Armstrong was the first to win the TDF on a CF bike and that was in 1999. A couple years after that, everyone at the pointy end of bike racing was on CF. Aluminum, especially good aluminum, frames, was a comparative blip when compared to the span of steel and the emerging span of CF. I feel for the bike manufacturers who bet on Hydroformed aluminum over CF in the early '00s.

You could argue going back to steel, but then we'd just get a new hipster movement surrounding the road cycling equivalent to NJS . Nobody wants that, do they?

rjones28 

Incorrect.

3alarmer 

3alarmer 

3alarmer 

...news to me ?

3alarmer 

...the advance of technology in history is chock full of dumb choices, pal. Do some reading.

indyfabz

It happens sometimes.