Carbon surface question

PedalMonkey

Hi

I thought that carbon was by nature a black horrible thing to look at, so the weave you see on carbon bikes is actually a small thin protective layer designed to make it look less boring than .. black plastic, if thats the case why do they put it on steerers

http://bikehugger.com/post/view/giant-tcr

Second picture down ? Or is that the actual weave ?

Wirral_paul

Tricky to tell whats what there really - but the bit above the stem is a carbon effect spacer

Unidirectional carbonfibre is just black to look at anyway yes - what you usually see is a cosmetic twill weave surface coat carbon fibre

PedalMonkey

I actually meant the bit in the in the stem gap (at the back) ... Mine is a SL and I was just interged, best picturer I could find of the steerer tube on giant tcr sl

PedalMonkey

Slightly better (strangly I think it's the same bike)

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6197/604 ... 71f7b6.jpg

Wirral_paul

Looks plain black on Lars Boom's TCR SL - still tricky to tell due to lighting though. I wouldnt really expect a cosmetic layer on such an important structural area though myself

http://www.bikeradar.com/gallery/article/pro-bike-lars-booms-rabobank-giant-tcr-advanced-sl-30970?img=1&pn=pro-bike-lars-booms-rabobank-giant-tcr-advanced-sl&mlc=news%2Farticle#7

PedalMonkey

Yes on the 2012 SL it's black, in the 2011 ones it has a pattern (picture posted)

2012 raw frame

http://s-tec-essence.eshop.t-online.de/ ... ameset.jpg