NY Times story on carbon bike failures
Check out the stats on most of the rider bikes. They run aluminum bars and stems even if their supplier has carbon versions.
[HTML_REMOVED]-- still riding high end aluminum frame though it does have a carbon fork
Next one I buy will likely be Ti, just cuz
Why slag free swag?:rolleyes:
ummm, as your doctor i recommend against riding with a scaphoid fracture.
Check out the stats on most of the rider bikes. They run aluminum bars and stems even if their supplier has carbon versions.
[HTML_REMOVED]-- still riding high end aluminum frame though it does have a carbon fork
Well the bikes often have weights added to the bb to make them compliant with the 15 pound (or thereabouts) rule. That is one reason they often have aluminum bars. Do you think pros had no failures when they were riding aluminum? Or steel? or glued carbon? How many Kleins did Tinker go through in a season? I went through three myself before I sold the last one off. My Highball has probably seen worse conditions and bigger hits that a pro road bike (other than bad crashes) That frame is only a little heavier than many road frames. The bike weighs 22.5 pounds. Take off 1/2 pound for non dropper post, three pounds for a road fork over the F29, tires and wheels three pounds? That means if this frame were dressed like a road bike, 16 pounds. Many pros ride bikes around that weight.
Mostly carbon just fails differently. And I wouldn't rely on the NYT for bike info.
Debate? Bikes are made for riding not pushing.
I like that they didn't mention that these failures are the result of design choices by manufacturers to achieve weight and stiffness goals instead of crash resistance. The article should have mentioned that carbon can be hugely bombproof if the manufacturer wants it that way. A carbon frame's fracture point can be pushed to ridiculously high levels if the manufacturer thinks it's necessary.
There's nothing better than an Orangina after cheating death with Digger.
Well the bikes often have weights added to the bb to make them compliant with the 15 pound (or thereabouts) rule.
They should put more into the frame instead of adding weights. :)
It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
- Josiah Stamp
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
- H.G. Wells
Steel is still real!
The raw, primitive, unrefined trails that see little to no maintenance are the kinds of trails that really build skill. What kind of skills do you learn riding a trail that was made by a machine, groomed to perfection and void of any rocks, roots or other obstacles that could send you careening over the handlebars?
Road race bikes and wheels used by elite riders are fragile because they are designed for lightness above all else. Some of carbon wheels are so expensive and fragile, that they are only used in competition. Lower end wheels are ridden in training. If carbon was inherently fragile, why does pretty much every MTB on the pro-level DH race circuit these days have a frame and wheels made of carbon? Do you see carbon DH bikes and rims disintegrating at every race?
They should put more into the frame instead of adding weights. :)
One of the frame builders, it may have been Cannondale, actually bonded a set of standard weight sets like this
to one of their ultralight model's rear triangle as an "F.U." to the UCI's 16 lb minimum weight requirement for bicycles used in UCI events.
It was Cannondale. And riders wore prison stripped jerseys that said Free My Cannondale, or something like that and there were little brass weights on the top tube. It's closer to 15 pound limit too. Race wheels are not that fragile either. The wheels can only be so light with the weight requirements although that is offset with added weights. We can buy the exact same wheels in most cases that the pros ride. You do see the odd set up on a pros bike with no labels though. That is one thing that the UCI does that I like, bikes have to be commercially available and not one off specials. Frames all have approved decals now and I think wheels might too or that are considering that too. The British team were circumventing that rule a few years back with one off special bikes that were in theory available through a web site, but cost was huge and wait times were infinite. In other words, the complied with all the rules up to where you could actually get your hands on one.
Debate? Bikes are made for riding not pushing.
Mostly carbon just fails differently.
That's the whole point of the article though.
treezz
wow you are a ass
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