i'm curious what the failure mode is for the larger cross sections / thicker shapes of carbon dh frames. obviously dependant of cloth types [HTML_REMOVED] layup, but i'd like to assume that owing to it's non isotropic nature [HTML_REMOVED] 'fibrousness' it would crack but perhaps not detach important bits (like headtubes) as readily as aluminum. would actually like to see some carbon dh frames tested to failure just to see what happens. though the fact we've not heard of any failures so far is, i suppose, a good thing.
If it's anything like carbon masts, boat hulls, blocks and such it would be very complete
in it's failure. That's one of the things that prevented the normal boaters from using it
in their own craft. Unlike metal, it doesn't give any indication that it's about to fail.
Carbon has two states…good and bad. When a mast breaks it makes a very loud pop and it looks
as though a bomb went off inside it.
Anyway, people in the boating world point to carbon's on/off properties and think it's
bad forgetting that if your mast is bent in half or broken in half it's still screwed.
Also, you're far more likely to break your aluminum mast than your carbon one, though
you do have a higher chance of lightning strike, and you need to be careful when attaching
metal to ensure isolation else the metal will corrode.
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"i surf because, i"m always a better person when i come in"-Andy Irons
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