Carbon fibre damage?

saracen blitz chris

Hi there!

just a quick question!

i was talking to 1 of my freinds dads bout bikes the other day and we got on to the convo of carbon fiber frames, he said that if you scratch the frame you need to laquer it as if water gets into it it will ruin the frame. is this true?

many thanks!

nicklouse

i feel he was over exaggerating the issue but damage to a carbon frame can fail where you do not expect it to.

saracen blitz chris

ok thanks!

i thought it was a bit strange as the scott randsom is carbon fibre and thats sort of bike that generally would get the odd scratch.

skyliner

Carbon fibre has been tested submerged in water at 70 degrees for hours with no ill effects.
But solvents and UV light in a scratch could be a big problem.

supersonic

There are reports of carbon bars delaminating though where they have been sawn down due to water ingress.

skyliner

Carbon bars can delaminate just from being cut in the 1st place if it's not cut correctly.
As the filaments and resins used to make composite parts are impervious to water ingress, it may be cleaning solutions carried by the water that eventually did for the bar.

I worked with carbon fibre in the golf industry for over 10 years. I never saw a shaft (which are all cut to size during fitting) delaminate due to water ingress.
And they have rubber grips on the end much like a handlebar. They're just laid up differently. Filament wound to control the torque, and frequency and flex matched to create a higher MOI, and consistent feel.

supersonic

I have a rather nice golf club with a carbon shaft with wound zylon fibres - A Zevo Compressor. Massive distance!

skyliner

Aldila HM-40 Boron was the shaft to have back when I worked in the industry, but Wilson had their Firestick, Taylormade had the Flextwist, Yonex were just hitting the scene, all variations on the same theme. But everyone's producing decent quality shafts these days. Soft tip, and double kick are the latest versions, but i can still get it out about 340yds with my Titleist 983K Aldila HM S flex driver.

supersonic

I used to yearn for a Wilson Killer Whale 12 years ago, with firestick shaft! My new baby (well, not that new) is an interesting design, with a tensioned titanium head. 9 degree stiff, but could do with a newer shaft as the ball flies too high.

nicklouse

we used to run carbon fiber push rods in the old Mini race engines but they were too unreliable as they were thicker than the steel ones they touched the bores of the push rod holes and after some time failed at one end or the other.