PaulRivers

Ditto, if the cost was the same, I'd definitely be using CF in the winter as well.

WestPablo

Yeah, but despite CF's whether resistant properties, still we have posters here who refuse to ride their CF bikes in inclement whether.

Quote:

theft - it's usually easier to find cheap aluminum or old steel than it is carbon fiber, however, carbon fiber has been around long enough that I've seen cheap full carbon bikes, I was at a bike sale this spring where I saw an older trek for $200. And of course if your parking at work is relatively secure (which it is sometimes), this may not be an issue.

C'mon___! Really?...Let's keep this within the realm of reality. Most CF bikes are quite valuable! Most used CF bikes are worth nothing less than $1200.

Quote:

abuse on the part of others - this is the one I don't think anyone has figured out - whether carbon fiber can get damaged easier than steel or aluminum if it's slammed up against other bikes

Most of us already know which bike we most definitely won't wanna chance locking up between two other metal bikes!

Quote:

Every time there's a new frame material, someone is claiming it's fragile and has a limited lifespan, take a look at this thread from 2006 -

In truth, there are fewer things bad about steel, than carbon fiber. The things I have against CF are all environmentally related.

PaulRivers

(deleted, accidental double post)

PaulRivers

I feel like these turn kinda pointless at this point, carbon fiber is widely used and sold, and many of the supposed negatives seem to be largely to much from the retrogrouches and early speculation that's innacurate. I can say that if you're buying new, carbon fiber is more expensive, that's true. But like I said above, every time there's a new material a lot of new urban legends get created about how it's supposedly unsafe, going to explode when exposed to sunlight, "doesn't last as long as the previous material" is always a pretty consistent claim that usually isn't true, etc.

dynaryder

Salsa Cycles
Stile Products Recalls Tern Folding Bicycles Due to Fall Hazard | CPSC.gov

Additionally,I've had two friends whose steel forks broke from regular street riding,and another whose steel frame broke at the headtube. All were recent vintage,not decades old classics. It's not like metal frames are magic;even Ti ones fail. I've owned lots of non-CF bikes that I wouldn't lock up to a public rack because I don't want them scratched.

TransitBiker

Guy i know states that doing things like this are for people with more money than sense. I tend to agree with him.

- Andy

zacster

What surprises me about some of these opinions about carbon fiber is that it has been around a long time already. It isn't new anymore. It doesn't melt in the rain, explode in the sun, fall apart when you hit a bump in the road.

If it costs more, and is worth more, it will be stolen more. Except for one fact: I never see a carbon bike locked to a pole. Nobody is crazy enough, nor is any lock strong enough, to do that. I take mine inside with me. I've locked it once, but inside in my office. I've had it for 10 years already.

WestPablo

My concern is not about the frailties of CF, but the proper disposal of this non-biodegradable environmental hazard. Now that CF products have entered into the mainstream of the consumer world, they have become much more ubiquitous, primarily due to their reduction in price, which makes them more available. This fact is also true within the bicycle industry. CF bicycle prices continue to fall, as CF technology more easily facilitates the manufacturing of bicycles. Since more members of the cycling community are purchasing CF bicycles, more spent CF bicycles are finding their way to landfills where they are most certainly NOT going anywhere for at least the next one to two hundred years. CF does NOT biodegrade, decompose, or deteriorate over time, like most other materials. The same is true for many plastics, but carbon fiber in particular.

We should think more about the benefits of having the luxury of CF bicycles versus the potential negative environmental impact CF has upon our future. I often wonder if CF is actually worth its production as a bicycle frame material over that of aluminum and/or steel.

WestPablo

Yes Dynaryder,

However, the point is that CF does not decompose the same as aluminum, steel, and titanium. Once it's produced it remains to linger within our environmental for centuries. This cannot be said of any other bicycle frame material.

Therefore, what are so many CF bicycle owners worried about? Why worry about theft or stranger abuse?
Why worry about cycling on a CF bicycle in the winter?

Are all of these worries really worth the additional environmental impact upon our planet? Before we move on with the further production of CF bicycles and other products, we need to find a viable method of proper disposal and/or method of recycling...

daihard 

I'm currently commuting on my CF bike since we are temporarily allowed to store our bikes in the office suite. Our building management is working on beefing up the security of the bike cage. Once it's done, we will be required to use the bike cage again. That's when I'm switching back to my hybrid as commuter.

Panza

It's a beautiful commuter bike that looks cleaner than the office it's in ... and the office is quite neat too. At least you have security in your office! Hehe

rebel1916

Just keep throwing objections against the wall and see what sticks.

daihard 

Haha thanks! The room is actually a storage room. Being code monkeys in a high-tech company, we get cubicles instead of personal offices.

WestPablo

What other objections have I mentioned not environmentally related?

tjspiel

As CF becomes more common and starts to enter the waste stream in larger quantities it will become more cost effective to develop better means of recycling it. Siemens apparently has come up with a process that reclaims fibers that have nearly the same strength as when new. This process also requires less energy than producing new carbon fiber.

Apparently even lower grade reclaimed carbon fiber makes an excellent, durable, chemically resistant, and lightweight form of insulation.

rebel1916

Again, comical.

WestPablo

Yes again! Covering up a cosmetic CF blemish with nail polish on a $4k - 10k bike is very comical!

WestPablo

Thanks @tjspiel!

Though they're still in the developmental stage of this recycling process, it's still uplifting to note!

Darth Lefty 

Steel is a lot more chemically active in a landfill than carbon fiber - it turns into rust which is a decent oxidizer and will attack the aluminum frame next to it to make thermite. BOOM

Panza

It's sad... but that's what I did to my blemishes. Looks perfect though. : ) As long as it's just a paint chip and not a terrible scratch on the frame? Let's go high end nail paint. Go revlon or go home.

PaulRivers

Ha, yeah, I wish this forum had a reputation system so I could upvote things rather than having to quote to agree...

rebel1916

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then. I try not to make a habit of it!

dynaryder

Interesting. Something for me to think about the next time I'm burning my old tires and innertubes in a trash barrel.

dynaryder

:d

WestPablo

People do a lot of mindless things...

Burning old tires and inner tubes is mild compared to that large plastic garbage patch the size of Texas, floating somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

I guess if we continue to remain mindless, we'll be adding CF on top of that oceanic plastic. Instead of our quest and probe into space, we would do very well just to take care of our planet and all of its ecosystems.