Carbon Frame - death or glory

jgsi

it came up in conversation that carbon bikes have a limited life.. how long have they been around now? nearly 25 years....
apart from crashing has anyone had to deliver their carbon framed bike unto the portals of hell or pearly gates as it crumbled beneath them?

phil s

Bikes of all materials have suddenly given up the ghost for no apparent reason. All this nonsense about carbon being mega-fragile is bolleaux.

Cressers

True, but I'd rather ride steel that would bend rather than shear catastrophicaly.

alan_sherman

I had one written off as the bike shop dropped anoher bike onto the top tube.....

it would have dented and spoilt any frame though - the material is irrelevent to that. However the tube did not shatter - it had a gouge and a dent around it. Carbon is tough material.

antikythera

Recently returned from a trip to Oz...

Bikes and cycling stuff in general is noticably more expensive over there (demographics, shipping, companies taking the p1ss, blah, blah blah..). Therefore folks will hold onto and use kit alot longer than appears here in the UK (at least to me).

I noticed that older carbon frames (pre 2003) were more common and my mates are more concerned about when they can afford an upgrade rather than if they need one

redddraggon

alan sherman wrote:

Carbon is tough material.

Aye, Diamond is pretty hard to break

hotnajers

I remember about a year ago now on the mtbr website gt page of a picture of a gt carbon frame stripped down on a repair stand, and where a brake line run under the rear shock mount to the rear brake had been rubbing away at the down tube and left a hole about the size of a 5 pence piece, dont know whether its covered under warranty, if not its a sickener always use patches!

Cressers

Cable rub is a problem with steel and alu frames as well.

balthazar

Cressers wrote:

True, but I'd rather ride steel that would bend rather than shear catastrophicaly.

the normal failure mode for steel frames is fatigue; this is experienced as a "catastrophic" event even though the crack has been developing for weeks or months, unless you spot the crack before. See many pictures here:

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/000.html

A steel frame will bend if you hit something hard, but in that case it's the hitting something hard you should worry about — not how your frame breaks!

markos1963

I got my carbon frame wet once, never again

Heckler1974

markos1963 wrote:

I got my carbon frame wet once, never again

Tell me about it, a two grand puddle of carbon is not a nice thing to see. I've wrapped my entire frame in cling film in case of surprise showers.