jumping on carbon
 

i need a new fork and was looking at carbon options (specifically, a 1" threaded wound-up one) but i'm worried i might over abuse it. how sensitive are carbon forks really? who does jumps or other abusive tricks with carbon forks/wheels? i know people do, but should i avoid carbon if i intend on trying tricks where impact is a factor or will i be safe enough?

how about just leaving tricks for steel? seriously why spend that much on a fork just to abuse it? Get a simple $70 tange fork and then you won't have to worry.

I mean you can jump on carbon but realize it will break eventually with potentially disastrous consequences. If you do tricks inspect the fork before and after every ride. Seriously its important. A small crack can easily spell disaster

When you break the steel fork it will slowly bend, and crack. The carbon will shatter with out warning.

i understand carbon can fail without notice and that steel is always stronger. i'm not trying to get all bmx with it but i like hopping over manhole covers and off curbs, etc. i'm asking if carbon forks can take the abuse of more than just bumpy pavement.

I bet that a carbon fork could potentially be very strong, although I know very little about them. They make mountain bike frames out of carbon, so it must be able to be built pretty sturdily, no?

it can, but on a bike you know you're going to go tuff on, why not get parts that are tough to handle it well (ex: steel)?

Get a carbon MTB fork. It will withstand abuse much more than a road fork.

For tooling around, the risk is probably not worth the gain in decreased weight...

Just another thing to worry about.

who actually does tricks on carbon forks? pista concepts or something?
http://trackosaurusrex.com/pblog/images/VsJames.jpg
it's happening, i want to know how it holds up and how carefully one must ride with carbon.

Just don't mash into parking kerbs and it will survive.

to ride just for riding it's cool, but I wouldn't trust it under the impacts of constant tricking

That's not exactly a trick where the type of fork would make a god damn difference. find a more relevant picture

i know that, but it's a clear shot of newman riding the fork i'm talking about. hell, he does a pretty big jump in the macaframa trailer with it. it's pretty obvious that their are people riding carbon in ways it wasn't intended. i'm wondering if anyone around here has an experience with carbon forks/wheels breaking on them or holding up very reliably, either way.

Im always hopping curbs on my Felt Carbon Airofoil fork. But now that i got a HED3 im a bit more wary.

why do you want carbon?

is it because it looks cool?

or do those extra grams let you catch more air?

Just so you understand, these guys do do all that crazy **** on track bikes is kinda stupid, as it stands, taking track bikes on the street is a big stretch from what there built for, but doing tricks on them is like taking your Lamborghini off roading (you should see the road gaps i can do in one.)

On second thought, it's a great idea:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ptforkfail.jpg

I wouldn't be worried about hopping of curbs as much as I'd be worried about scraping the fork then hopping off curbs.

Take a look at your current fork; is it all scratch up? Would you trust a carbon fork that looked like that?

If you're doing wheelies and dont land ridiculously hard on the front or other more simple tricks the fork will hold up. Jumping and other tricks is pushing it, in my opinion. I broke a Concept fork exactly like the dude on pink deep vs above by blindly hitting a curb very late at night. I don't think a fork will just spontaneously break like that from one too many wheelies.

I wish there were a BFSSFG materials engineer.

thanks peabody, that's kinda what i was thinking. i generally treat my bike as nicely as possible, but i like to use it to its fullest.

anybody else have experience?

Check the Mechanics forum.

Roadies of course use carbon forks and they are great for that but for tricks, curb-hopping, etc. you need a fork you can rely on plus a good headset and some strong wheels. A steel fork isn't that much heavier and actually has way more street cred/hipster points than a carbon one for a fixed gear bike.

[off to replace headset on San Jose that won't stay tight].

They make cyclocross forks out of carbon.

They make hip huggers in size 42 as well. That don't mean Ms. Hungry Hungry Hippo has to wear them.

I have a nashbar carbon fork on one of my bikes. Though I don't do any tricks, per se, I'm not exactly easy on that bike either. I do sometimes have to hop over potholes and occasionally go off of curbs (the slow, one-wheel-at-a-time kind of way). For my purposes, the fork has held up well and I doubt that lighter impacts along the normal axis of force will damage the carbon. In some cases, like jumping over potholes, I would even guess that the downward force of the landing is much better than hitting the pothole straight on.

It's pretty obvious I'm saying carbon forks can be strong. Don't be a jackass.