PepeM

Oof, good point. Never even thought of that one. Might have to pass by the LBS on the way home to grab a few bottles, no way I'm using my old bottles anymore.

indyfabz

I completely deflate my tires after every ride and then re-inflate them before I go out again. Riding on used air is dangerous. The air molecules can become severely depressed, resulting in catastrophic failure or worse: a nuclear asplosion.

ZIPP2001

This same guy posted the same stuff on another forum, with pretty much the same results.

I have 3 carbon bikes that I now have to get rid of because they are to old and dangerous for me to ride. Anyone looking for a Zipp2001 TT Bike, or Zipp2001 SS bike, or how about a Kestrel SLK900 road bike. I guess it's back to steel I go.

rekmeyata

If you're using CO2 you may have to do that, the nuclear explosion thing is a rare event...about one in 100,000 chance, so you're probably good for awhile yet.

rekmeyata

Yes, I can see a manufacture of carbon bikes admitting that the bikes are unsafe to ride after a season. But I'll try to ask in a roundabout way and see what the response is.

CliffordK

That used to be the recommendation, at least from some riders.

I was generally a bit lazy. If I was planning on riding the next day, I'd just leave them inflated, but deflate if not going out for a few days.

jefnvk

I'm such a good guy, I'll take all three off your hands AND let you have anything in my signature line in return!

EDIT: holy cow, never seen one of those Zipps before. Crazy bike!

mconlonx 

Factory car and motorcycle race teams regularly rebuild engines after every race, with mere hours on engines run for less than 1000 mi. However, the warranty on drivetrains in the vehicles they sell to the public, through dealerships, is measured in years and tens of thousands of miles.

What does manufacturer advice to racing teams have to do with product sold to the public...? Factories aren't concerned about personal injury, they're concerned about bad publicity...

Jarrett2

You made a good point... in the wrong direction

Auto racing teams don't sell race cars to the public. In fact, I would be willing to bet that only a handful of car owners base their purchase decisions on the success of auto racing teams, if any. The marketing to consumers has nothing to do with race results.

The road bike industry is different. The whole carbon road bike line up is driven by racing. They build a bike for their pro racers to use, then turn around and market the same bike to the consumer saying this is a winning race bike. And people eat it up. Just look at the number of people in this thread that are non racers riding pro carbon road race bikes.

And those same companies turn around and post a blurb in subtext 39 of appendix B in the owner's manual about how carbon road bikes are built strictly for racing for in one or maybe two seasons, use light components that have a known shorter use life and weight limits that rarely see the light of day.

Most people don't read that stuff. They just want the fastest bike on the floor and expect it to be as durable as steel and last for years without issue. And they are surprised when its not that way for them.

Maelochs

Care to show three or four actual quotes from bike manufacturers saying this?

No?

Oh, because it is just more wholly fabricated BS. Gotcha.

Jarrett2

Well... here's one from Specialized

HIGH-PERFORMANCE ROAD
• CONDITION 1: Bikes designed for riding on a paved surface where the tires do not lose ground contact.
• INTENDED: To be ridden on paved roads only.
• NOT INTENDED: For off-road, cyclocross, or touring with racks or panniers.
• TRADE OFF: Material use is optimized to deliver both light weight and specific performance.

You must understand that:
(1) these types of bikes are intended to give an aggressive racer or competitive cyclist a performance advantage over a relatively short product life,
(2) a less aggressive rider will enjoy longer frame life,
(3) you are choosing light weight (shorter frame life) over more frame weight and a longer frame life,
(4) you are choosing light weight over more dent resistant or rugged frames that weigh more.
All frames that are very light need frequent inspection. These frames are likely to be damaged or broken in a crash.
They are not designed to take abuse or be a rugged workhorse

Jarrett2

The letter in the OP appears to say roughly the same thing from Colnago...

Don't you hate when you call BS on someone and they make you look silly for doing so?

Wilfred Laurier

Certainly there is a wannabe racer phenomena and people going for the 'stupid light' and not being logical when they select a bike, but you and cyclintroll... er cyclintom seem to be suggesting proof that it is a problem with the material.

Maelochs

Link to a source please so we can see the context. Also ... I see no mention of a time frame there. What i do see is a manufacturer saying, "The harder you use it the faster you use it up" which is true for any and all products.

You invented the "one or two seasons" bit just to strengthen your claim ... but it is a lie, not a fact, and your own "proof" proves you made it up.

Source, please.

Wilfred Laurier

That actually does not refer strictly to carbon bikes. They had steel bikes to which the same category applied just a couple years ago.

SkyDog75

You might want to take "Me" out of your signature line.

Jarrett2

There's no problem with the material. These manufacturers have repeatedly said that they use carbon fiber to build a road race bike that safely lasts for one or two race seasons for lightweight racers. That was the goal and they achieved it with the material. The issue comes when that purpose built bike is used in a manner it wasn't designed for.

PepeM

You love that one, don't you? Lets do this again: 'relatively short product life' doesn't mean anything. What is 'relatively short?' 1 month? 1 year? 10 years? Open to interpretation. 'A less aggressive rider will enjoy longer frame life.' Less aggressive than who? How longer? 'Not designed to take abuse.' What counts as abuse? Jumping a curb? Throwing it down a cliff? Over-tightening a bolt?

What it does say is that high performance (weight, mainly) is inversely proportional to durability. That is independent of material and I am sure most people understand that.

Who are this 'most people?' The only one I can think of is the OP. But yes, talking about 'people' to make whatever point you're trying to make is always easy.

Jarrett2

I've educated you all I wish to for today. Google it yourself if you have more questions. It's easy to find.

It certainly does pertain to carbon bikes now as they are the only ones that fall under that category in the referenced appendix. I'll have to take your world that steel was incorporated in there in years past.

Wilfred Laurier

You are taking a misinterpretation of the OP - that 'our team uses it for two years' = 'only good for two years of use', then attributing it to a manual from another manufacturer that also doesn't say what you are claiming it does. Where in your Specialized quote does it say 'only lightweight riders' or 'only good for two years'? You are letting cylintom's expert trolling drag you to a ridiculous conclusion.

Jarrett2

The weight limits are a little deeper in the same document. It is open to interpretation what "relatively short life product life" means. The fact that they have even mentioned it speaks volumes, imo. I don't want to bet my safety on their intentional legalese ambiguity, personally. If you do, that's up to you.

PepeM

That's not true. Their 'High-Performance Road' category includes the Allez, Langster, and Dolce, all aluminum bikes.

Are you also afraid of aluminum bikes?

Btw, that category also does NOT include the Diverge, which comes in carbon.

Wilfred Laurier

Nope. Multiple aluminum and carbon bikes listed as 'category 1'. They also have carbon bikes listed under all the other categories.

Jarrett2

My mistake. I'd avoid them as well in that case. I don't want a bike with a relatively short product life, personally.

Wilfred Laurier

They don't talk about it in reference to solely carbon bikes. Lightweight parts and frames have a limited lifespan, regardless of the material they are made from.