Protecting carbon

jehosophat

So my first thought on getting the Blur XC out of the box was "my god this is light" followed by "surely I will break this". Probably entirely irrational since people like Santa Cruz go to great lengths to explain these bikes are stronger and at least as impact resistant as the metal versions, and I have never broken a metal bike (bent/dented rear triangle on my Superlight excepted) but do people recommend any sort of protection for lightweight carbon frames? I was thinking of helicopter taping the lower half of the underside of the down tube, and the underside of the BB and chainstays, or perhaps a lizard skin on each side of the chain stay. Anyone know of any guides or products that might help? I have some of the "real" helicopter tape from Just Riding Along now.

It is not majorly rocky around here - indeed if it was, I would probably have bought something else. I feel a little nervous about my next trip to CYB, whereas with the Blur Classic I just thought "bring it on". I'm sure I'll feel more confident when it is built up and I can appreciate how stiff it is (so to speak)....

1mancity2

Seen carbon protection plates on ebay before now,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carbon-Fibre- ... 1e6c60cfc3

something simialr prehaps if you can find one for your frame.

DodgeT

I've been having similar thoughts as I've just ordered a carbon 456 frame.
I'm getting lots of tape off paragon tapes (look for them on ebay), gona wrap it then ride it and worry none

agg25

My Pivot will have a bit of it's own protection on the down tube and one of the chainstays, but I grabbed some Matte Heli Tape from Paragon as well from ebay to stop cable run and whack anywhere else I think may cop a knock.

cooldad

Abit of heli tape where you might get cable rub. End of.

milfredo

cooldad wrote:

Abit of heli tape where you might get cable rub. End of.

Bang on. My carbon Blur only has cable rub protection and has been fine since 2009 & definatly not pampered. MTB's are meant to get chipped and scratched during use, the carbon will not break.

bennett_346

Aluminium, especially racy triple butted alu, is probably just if not more likely to take damage. Carbon fibre is stronger for a given weight, that's the whole point. People need to get that in their heads that lighter =/= weaker.

jehosophat

Thanks. I suppose it is specifically the impact resistance to sharp objects e.g. if you crash on rocks or have stones hitting the downtube a lot that is the perceived issue...

cooldad

Try an experiment - stick some helitape on your knee, crash onto sharp rock, see how much it helps.

bennett_346

jehosophat wrote:

Thanks. I suppose it is specifically the impact resistance to sharp objects e.g. if you crash on rocks or have stones hitting the downtube a lot that is the perceived issue...

If you landed hard enough to damage a carbon frame you would of landed hard enough to damage an alu frame. There's a video of a man hitting a carbon frame with a hammer hard enough to make me wince and it does no damage at all.

mattyg2004

Carbon holds up really good against impact

But absolutely rubbish against rubbing. Tape anything that'll rub. Especially on your bike rack

jehosophat

Interesting, I didn't know about the cable rub!

The Trek EX9.9 I was originally looking at made a big play about impact absorbing OCLV carbon, Santa Cruz don't talk about it much except to say the original Blur XCc was "as impact resistant" and twice as stiff/strong as the alloy version (which dented pretty easily...). But Santa Cruz do seem to have been doing the carbon thing for a while, and well. I will dig out that youtube video of them abusing a carbon and metal frame and watch it fully now, I think!

You can say tape does nothing, but if you crash on sharp stuff the difference between a short and long sleeve jersey can poften be massive in terms of how cut up your skin gets. Thin protection could stop some bad scratches. Whether they would weaken it in any way, or are just cosmetic, is another matter.

I am tempted just to tape up the cable rub areas and areas like the lower down tube/underside of the BB (where I have often got small dents in metal frames) and then just ride it like I stole it and try not to think about this stuff. I don't know how good Santa Cruz's UK crash replacement policy is these days, it used to be great in the US and rubbish here. When I dented and bent the chainstay on my Superlight they wanted £350 for a rear triangle. That was on a bike that retailed for £900 here at the time - say £350 for each triangle and £200 for the shock and that sounds like full RRP to me! I have just kept it as-is as a "mud full susser" for winter use.

jairaj

Its just extra marketing talk from Trek. Both frames are built by good manufacturers and are 100% suitable for the purpose they are designed for. You should be fine with some helli tape in any contact areas to stop cable rub.

But if you ride a lot where there are many loose rocks and stones and are regularly flying up and hitting the frame then maybe an extra downtube protector might help? But I would use this for any frame not just a carbon frame.

craigw99

remember just dont get it wet

jehosophat

Some chance of that lately!

I am looking forward to the VPP 2 suspension being a lot more weather proof - VPP 1 worked well but there was a lot of bearing and pivot maintenance compared to the Superlight and Heckler I have/had. In fact I need to phone Stif about that as I got no grease gun/grease/carbon paste with the frame and soon it will be back from the LBS with headset in place and I can get building...