Originally Posted by
rosefarts
It is fun to talk about the ultimate reinforcement for a carbon steerer. In practice though, if installed correctly, almost never break, and when they do it's from a crash or something like that.
It's a bit of a personality test. In the last couple years I've built a deck and shed. Both are more robust than code would require.
For me the problem with carbon is that in normal use it's probably fine, but as soon as you crash it, no matter how little any damage may appear, you don't know if there was a void or dry spot in the layup that has now started a crack. Maybe you hit a pothole badly and the crack extends, now you're riding on borrowed time.
I crashed a bike, steel frame, a low speed (but very sudden) fall onto tarmac and there was no significant damage apparent. Later I noticed the entire frame is twisted, and a pedal broke its spindle a few weeks later. Now I'm not worried about the twist, if I was using that bike now I would straighten it and not worry about it failing, but carbon is more likely to act like that pedal - doing fine, doing fine, sudden catastrophic failure.
I see ultrasonic crack detectors start at around $1,000 now - if I was working with carbon I would be tempted just to be able to say "there are no signs of internal failure" rather than "it's tricky stuff, you just can't tell" or "send it to a specialist, it's $200 plus shipping".