Originally Posted by
GeneO
And steel is just iron with carbon and alloy bikes are just aluminum with magnesium and other elements. Carbon Fiber is Carbon Fiber with some resin to bind it together., It isn't reinforced plastic. These materials are far superior to their base material. You wouldn't make bike from iron, pure aluminum or plastic. So what's your point?
But - you'd have something much closer to a bike with just the resin, no carbon fiber than if you left out the resin. There was good reason fiberglass was called GRP (glass reinforced plastic or FRP (fiber reinforced plastic).
This from someone who has built ~50 frp boats, one with carbon fiber. It's just another fiber you have to lay out in a mold, wet out and cure. Yes, the wetout now is prepreg and the laying out is done in a dry state, molds are usually closed and the end result oven heated but overall, fundamentally the same. Workmanship is just as important but now no no one can see it, not the customer and often not even the supervisor.
Carbon fiber is a much bigger jump from the bare fibers than any metal form its raw element. You could make and ride an iron bicycle just fine, It might weigh 100 pounds but it would work, Same with raw aluminum or titanium. That bag of fabric will never get you anywhere.