Hey Guys!

Do most DH riders who traverse steep mountains, feel comfortable riding carbon?

-OR-

Would they prefer to ride aluminum or steel, instead?


Thanx!

- Slim

Why are you infatuated with carbon?

most downhill riders i know don't ride carbon downhill bikes.

if you are worried carbon may break or isn't durable enough, for what it's worth, we rent carbon bikes to people all the time, and they aren't the most gentle, most careful, or most skilled riders, they abuse the crap out of those bikes, and the bikes don't break.

also, my friend rides a mojo hd and rides it pretty hard, no problems.

I would not be averse to carbon; I have no qualms about its ability to take punishment. For the time being, it's more of an availability/expense thing.

'Cause it turns me on...........

I personally believe that it's the ultimate material for most vehicular frames of the future. Initially, it will appear to be odd to us when consider that in less than ten years from now, we will speak of steel and aluminum bicycle frames as being passe and obsolete. Soon, carbon fiber will not only be as strong as steel, it will also be practically bullet proof. Once this occurs, you will begin to see DH MTN bikes made of 100% CF. You will also see CF expand onto bicycle types other than just road bikes. We're going to see CF hybrids and many more CF commuter bikes, too. All aluminum and chromoly steel MTN bikes will be abandoned over the much preferred immutable, invincible, and damage-resistant carbon fiber.

- Slim

Nostradamus? Is that you?

I hear the AZTECs invented CF chariots to fight the Incas with.

You have met the future and it is here . . .

This can't be true...I would never use a word like "passe" b/c I don't wear pink lycra.

Sure is a lot of metal in those forks, spokes, rims, cassettes, cranks, & seat posts for a 100% CF bike

And gone will be the days of Bikepedia! We can just use carbon dating to figure out exactly how old frames are!

^^^

Indeed...this is approx. a 2014 Specialized Demo Carbon...(give or take 500,000 years)

I bet they could get it down to within 100,000 years .

Dminor, that GT frame looks oddly awesome, but don't know if I like that BB/crank mount system.

So back to the original question:

Would you have faith in jumps with CF MTN bikes or not?

- Slim

The bcd Racing frame looks as cobby as my first light build. It'd be awesome if it was the fastest one of the bunch. Meh...wagon wheels.

So would you be concerned about going DH with CF, or not?

- Slim

Would you ride the GT Fury DH, or not?

- Slim

I would!!!!

I think Pablos comments on the CF rentals getting abused is a pretty good endorsement that you can trust the CFs for DHing. dminor wouldn't post pictures of crap that couldn't be trusted. He seems to know a thing or two about the segment of Mountain Biking. Most manufacurers won't release frames for DHing if there are going to be law suits associated with breaks. Its a good time to make the CF jump. (oops, no pun intended)

I wouldn't, but that is because I have never ridden any type of DH, or even semi technical trails, and think I would need to be a better biker before trying DH . Basically, I wouldn't ride any bike DH until I get better and basic biking skills.

As for if I ever did ride DH would I worry about riding carbon, not at all. Carbon has proven its durability in pretty much every field already, and has shown that it can take major impacts and keep trucking so why would it suddenly stop doing what it has been doing all along just because it is now being used on bikes instead of race cars, space shuttles, baseball bats, !!HAMMERS!! and many other things.

Hellll yeah I would! Send one over for me to demo, I'll let you know what I think.

the ibis mojo HD is specifically made for downhill. ok, it's not a "downhill" bike, but it is their "downhill" bike.

So would YOU ride the Mojo HD DH ?

- Slim

yes. i have, and i would do it again.