Originally Posted by
RiddleOfSteel
Carbon hates side impacts and forces it wasn't designed for more than metal does.
Now, old steel racing frames were of course made from very thin-walled tubing, whether that be in the '70s and '80s, non-heat-treated and heat-treated examples. For those of you old enough (as I am not) who watched racing or did racing, when there were heavy crashes or ones with frame damage, where were the usual points of bending or failure? Perhaps a steel tube or tubes wouldn't snap, but would still fold up spectacularly. Serious question. Just would like an objective answer, if possible.
Obviously hitting objects on high speed descents could completely mangle bikes, even steel bikes.
Generally: First person down Bitd... Lots of road rash, but unless they hit something head on, often the bikes and even wheels seemed to survive. Bike to bike impacts led to dents, dings and pretzeled wheels.Those who came after the early casualties...bike has abrupt deceleration,, crashing into fallen bodies. This often creasiEd and/or bent top and/or down tubes in upside down "V" with or without fork problems. In my experience, less road rash, but rider sometimes became a projectile sailing at close to 30 mph, in my case landing, on something soft like a body, and scrambling to get back on my bike. Trajectories were often similar but landing hard on pavement, often boke wrists or collarbones, getting ttangled in other bikes often resulted in cuts, sprains and bruises etc. Worst case of course, head impact.
Damage behind head tube lugs probably the most common ride altering frame damage, along with bent forks...