daft question about storing my new carbon bike .
Not long had my new carbon bike which ive been keeping in the living room but the wife is not going to put up with this for much longer .Its going to get relegated to the garage in the next week or 2 . Ive currently got an aluminium bike in the garage which i keep on my minoura workstand . my qustion is , will it be ok to put the carbon bike on the workstand with jaw very lightly clamped on the toptube ? or will this put stress on the frame in other places .......did warn you in title it might be a daft question .
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Seriously, it is going to get far more stressed while you are riding it.
Must admit my carbon is in the kitchen and has been since I got it 4 months ago. The winter bike is in the garage hanging from a hook from the ceiling, cos I think there are animals in there inviting the fairy in.
Honest I even found two needle holes in a then empty 2 gallon pressure weed killer carton.
Can I ask a question here???? Why would you even consider buying a bike, that you actually plan on riding, if you thought, for a minute, that clamping it in a stand, made for bikes, would hurt it? I wouldn't even get on a bike if I thought it was that fragile. What do you do if you see a slight bump in the road? Get off and walk??? :roll: :roll: :roll:
Or do you think that a bump or pothole in the road doesn't put any kind of stress on the frame but a clamp will? Where do these ideas come from??? Or are you just trolling?
You're absolutely right. It is a fair question.
So are mine. Why would you buy a "fragile" bicycle? How could lightly clamping(his words) hurt it more than hitting a pothole??? Or does he get off and walk through rough sections of road? In essence, "Who the h*ll makes a bicycle this flimsy and who the h*ll
would buy it?"
Are those not fair questions?
BTW, my son's expensive Cannondale (aluminium) xc mtb frame has such thin tubes that they bend with thumb pressure, yet when ridden the structure is obviously sound enough, but unusual forces may not be well tolerated.
Read the advertisements. Every year every bike gets stiffer and stronger than last years
offering. By now they must be as strong as girders.
In any case where does this carbon fiber paranoia come from?
Also bikes aren't fast. People are fast. Most bikes won't even move without a human on them. :roll: :roll:
Never said it was a stupid question.
So what happens with your sons bike if some slips with a wrench and bumps into one of
those thin tubes? What if the bike accidentally slips from his hands, falls over and hits
something hard??? Is the frame trashed?? I can't believe these things are that fragile??
And if they are, that someone puts their faith in them for actual riding, or that a manufacturer would even put his name on something that cr*ppy, or that a Pro rider would even consider using a bike that wouldn't stand up to a bit of abuse.
All I can say is you've got to be kidding about a bike not being able to withstand being "lightly clamped". And will someone please answer me as to where this carbon paranoia comes from.
So IMO the OP question is valid if a little hard to understand why he can't just lean it against the wall.
As for "fragile" carbon bikes, there's a posting recently on here on the MTB forum where someones foot has worn the top layer of carbon off the chainstay and he needs to repair it!
Kona Jake the Snake
Merlin Malt 4
I'm not arguing whether or not carbon / aluminum is good, bad, or so-so. Just trying to determine how someone could trust a bike, if in fact they were that "not so well built" "not able to take a bit of use or abuse"?
Dennisn I am not saying that you said the question was stupid (though your response suggests that).
I was saying that I think no question is too stupid - different point.
I am saying that the tube wall thickness on some lightweight aluminium frames is very thin and thumb pressure can make it bulge inwards. If he whacks it with a wrench or a rock in the wrong place, then yes, the frame will get dented. Not rocket science.
I expect an average carbon framed bike will fare better in a clamp than this particular cannondale alu frame - my carbon bike certainly seems tough enough.
I do not have "carbon paranoia", but I don't clamp my carbon, steel or titanium bikes around their main tubes, there is just no need to do so.
I think some of my questioning goes to a post or two a while back where someone wanted to know if it was safe to put his carbon fronts forks into a car roof rack clamp. All I could think of was "My god, if it breaks being on a roof rack how do you justify riding it over anything larger than a pebble?".
OT but there is some discussion about the durability of Cannondale lightweight alu road frames here - I like the analogy of the coke can - easy to squeeze in from the sides yet very stiff if you try to bend it holding each end.
I don't have an aluminum bike(or carbon for that matter) but if what you say is true
about a Coke can(and I'm guessing it is) I'm going to have a really hard time giving up a bike I trust(steel) for one that a lot of people seem to think simply won't tolerate anywhere near the use / abuse my lugged steely will endure. Weight be d*mned.
I think he was saying that aluminum tubed bikes could collapse in the manner of a Coke can. Not that they were make from Coke cans. Then again, when recycled with the right additives and heat treatments, who knows?
Bike tubes are designed to be strong in certain directions, hopefully the direction the expected load is coming from. They may also be strong in other directions but I don't think we can assume that. We've all seen how bike tubes can bend catastrophically when subject to a load in an unexpected direction.
So the original poster's question was valid. There's no reason to assume that a tube designed to take the forces applied when cycling will cope with the forces applied by a clamp. Our experience suggests that it probably will but he may never have owned a carbon frame bike.
This guy has been on the forum since 2005. Novice????
So tell me the difference between Coke can aluminum and bike frame aluminum.
Never said it wasn't a valid question. My question was. If YOU think these frames are so "flimsy", WHY buy one? I don't think they are "flimsy". Everyone else seems to though.
Hence my carbon paranoia statement. To be honest, I wouldn't buy a bike IF I thought(and I don't)that it wouldn't take even a light clamping.