Carbon fiber + rain = fun (I saw it this morning...)

medoramas
medoramas Posts: 202
edited March 2012 in Commuting chat
This morning I was following a friend of mine, who was cycling on his mtb (he prefers it over his road bike when it's raining). We were about 50 yards from our workplace, there is a curb he was going to bunny-hop on. He did it, but the landing was... hmm... rather unusual - first I thought he slipped, he did the "where is my balance" dance, it was a miracle he managed to unclip and and jump off the bike... Than I saw his carbon fiber handlebars in two halves...

So it's true what they say, that CF dissolves in rain! :D

Comments

  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    Eeek! What bars were they?
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 29,360
    bails87 wrote:
    Eeek! What bars were they?

    More importantly, had he crashed them into a tree recently?
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  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    Yep, I was going to ask that too.

    Or had he done the stem bolts up to a million Nm?
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • medoramas
    medoramas Posts: 202
    After that, when I was there laughing/asking if his OK, he said that he had owned them for 4 years, beating the cr*p out of the bike in Dartmoor quite regularly... They were BBB.
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    At least they 'went' when they did, rather than on the landing of a massive drop!
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • CiB
    CiB Posts: 6,098
    Oh. I thought it was going to be a tale of derring-do from NYC, what with talk of carbon fiber, and curbs. :)
  • t4tomo
    t4tomo Posts: 2,643
    Yet the CF lover would have us believe that CF is just as strong as Aluminium.

    Sorry shouldn't srcatched that itch ;)
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  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    t4tomo wrote:
    Yet the CF lover would have us believe that CF is just as strong as Aluminium.

    Sorry shouldn't srcatched that itch ;)
    We can see redvee's video of an alu crank arm snapping for no reason if you like?

    Something made of carbon fibre broke=/=aluminium is stronger than CF
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • optimisticbiker
    optimisticbiker Posts: 1,657
    Fact is, all materials will break if stressed above their yield point. The difference is that aluminium will bend first because it has a much lower modulus of elasticity than carbon relative to its yield point. And much depends on the form factor and construction. The aluminium crank may have snapped due a casting flaw in the crystalline structure, whereas the bars almost certainly snapped due to stress induced at the fixing point. In reality a carbon structure will have a greater strength than an identical aluminium or steel structure under identical stress conditions but will fail in a different way (generally fracturing rather than yielding). Under any other conditions, to argue one is stronger than the other is ultimately pointless.
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  • Coach H
    Coach H Posts: 1,092
    OptimisticBiker wrote:
    Fact is, all materials will break if stressed above their yield point. The difference is that aluminium will bend first because it has a much lower modulus of elasticity than carbon relative to its yield point. And much depends on the form factor and construction. The aluminium crank may have snapped due a casting flaw in the crystalline structure, whereas the bars almost certainly snapped due to stress induced at the fixing point. In reality a carbon structure will have a greater strength than an identical aluminium or steel structure under identical stress conditions but will fail in a different way (generally fracturing rather than yielding). Under any other conditions, to argue one is stronger than the other is ultimately pointless.

    Now this kind of well informed post just ruins the forum!
    Coach H. (Dont ask me for training advice - 'It's not about the bike')
  • dhope
    dhope Posts: 6,699
    OptimisticBiker wrote:
    well informed facts
    Yeah, but we're talking about rain here.
    Also I'm not sure if someone has pointed out yet that steel is real. It rhymes so it must be true.
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  • bonkstrong
    bonkstrong Posts: 120
    dhope wrote:
    OptimisticBiker wrote:
    well informed facts
    Yeah, but we're talking about rain here.
    Also I'm not sure if someone has pointed out yet that steel is real. It rhymes so it must be true.

    Yeah but if you're rhymes you're after then how about "Carbon gives a rodie a, erm, lardon? - I forget the exact phrase :roll:

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