Carbon fibre frames

peter10hollis

I'm a student at cockshut hill technology collage and for my product design A level i've got to create a product study , The topic of this study is Carbon fibre bike frames and i need cyclists opinion on carbon fibre frames.

how do carbon fibre frames compare to other other frames made from other materials materials , e.g. steel , aluminium ?

many thanks in advance!

Soggz

Their dearer...

big_scot_nanny

peter10hollis wrote:

I'm a student at cockshut hill technology collage

Hi Peter,

As a graduate of Fannymound University of arts and crafts, I can empathise with your question. (sorry, couldn't resist. i've been weeping reading the first line of your post. please forgive me!).

From my experience: steel = heavy and dead feeling, aluminium = very stiff but harsh (unless FS of course) and carbon = stiff, wierdly absorbing but also a constant feeling of brittleness.

This is only my opinion, I'm sure others will chime in.

Kev

chrisga

and usually lighter.....

peter10hollis

thanks for the replys , i understand the basics as ive spent the last few months researching properties of the materials and frame geometry, what im really trying to find out is how the different materials effect the cyclists performance ,

Are there are any disadvantages / advantages that would make you choose one material over the others?

Also carbon fibre being most expensive of all the frame materials , do people think the greater cost is really worth it?

Gwaredd

peter10hollis wrote:

Also carbon fibre being most expensive of all the frame materials , do people think the greater cost is really worth it?

I think some people choose it 'just because it's carbon' regardless of any advantages or disadvantages.

Indeed, I have a mate who is worried sick about cracking is GT Carbon Pro frame & refuses to jump it, similarly so another mate who looks worryingly at his carbon handlebars.

Is carbon the new Bling for us MTB'ers?

supersonic

Given a material, how it feels and performs is down to how it is designed and contructed. You can get heavy and dead feeling frames from steel, alu and titanium, or light or responsive 'whippy' ones.

Have a read of this thread a few days ago for an interesting discussion on materials:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=titanium

ride_whenever

Decent steel frames feel way way nicer than alloy ones usually, they're got a nice soft edge to them.

But basically material is pretty irrelevant, it depends how it is made much more. You can make really harsh cf frames and you can make soft alloy ones.

The different materials merely change the weight of the frame. The roadies had a fantastic thread about this a few months ago