Originally Posted by
RobbieTunes
I wish I understood that.
If you could duplicate the same power under the same conditions on a carbon bike and then a steel /ally bike at say 20 % of your best there would not much difference in distance travelled. If you put in 100 % on all three the CF bike would travel further coz the frame transfers power more efficiently.
Pros can generate 300 Watts for hours, sprinters get over 1200 Watts at the end. At over 25 mph very strong very fit people can extract the performance dividend CF offers that steel simply doesn't possess.
I drafted a guy yesterday on my 40 yo steel flat pedal winter hack. We sat on 25 mph into a headwind
His bike full carbon, disc brakes electronic shifters and a crank power meter. My bike cost 50 bucks his near enough to 10,000 dollars . All good you might say but by wheel sucking I needed only half the power he was putting into the road. If we'd swapped bikes I doubt he'd be able to keep up that speed on point for very long and if so he'd need considerably more power.
If you lend your CF bike and it gets a bad knock you might not know it until it begins to delaminate and go mushy hundreds of miles later when you are giving it all the berries.
In aircraft one compelling reason they didn't build fuselages from CF up until now was if ground equipment ie stairs, fuel trucks, baggage conveyors etc hit the hull CF wouldn't ding like an Ally skin that received the same impact. In other words if you are the sole user of your CF bike you are fully aware if any damage has occurred, especially the knocks that leave no discernable sign on the surface.
In the video the whacking of the CF frame would not become a structural problem for a thousand miles later whereas the metal frames were obviously kaput.
Some might argue clear evidence of damage is the safer option. Having examined much damaged CF that records indicate nothing untoward had ever occurred in the failed area I am very sceptical of what people choose to admit to. As such I would jealously guard any expensive CF frame I owned like a complete *******.