What sort of abuse can a whippet take?

mfereborn

As per the title really - what sort of abuse can an onone whippet take? I'm considering flogging a zesty and buying a whippet frame as inspired by the olympics and my love of smooth fast trails (and competitive nature) i really fancy taking up racing - unfortunately its one bike or the other however.

I did previously have a fuel EX but i was always wanting a bit more in the way of suspension for jumping about on - now i understand a whippet is an 80-100mm xc hardtail but would it be okay on rougher stuff as long as im not attempting drop offs and similar?

The worst it would likely experience is maybe 1ft rollers onto the flat around south wales trails.

Im just worried as it'll be my first carbon frame and a short travel one at that.

I would consider a 456 but i figure i might as well go all out with the weight saving stakes if i am selling the zesty.

Additionally, and this is a whole different kettle of fish - should i consider the carbon 29er over the whippet? To me its a debate over whether the cost of parts is worth the smoothness - but ive never even tried one!

Cheers

Thom

bennett_346

Sounds like you'll be fine with the whippet.

rockmonkeysc

Only this week I sugested to someone that their whippet would crack from the slightest jump, he then fired it off a 6' drop and then jumped it off every feature on the trail for the rest of the 15 mile ride. It was fine but I wouldn't do it regularly.

njee20

1ft? Considering there are drops significantly bigger than that in plenty of XC race courses I'd say you'll be just fine! I'd ride drops like that on a cross bike without thinking twice!

IShaggy

I wouldn't be overly worried about the strength of carbon fibre frames. Check this out -

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/santa-cruz ... t-lab.html

Also, how often do you here of carbon fibre frames breaking? Not that often, and I can guarantee that if more were then the owners would be shouting about it from the roof-tops.

passout

You'll probably be fine, just don't look at this website: http://www.bustedcarbon.com/

Seriously though, I broken more alu. frames & components over the years than I have carbon.

YeehaaMcgee

Seems like a pointless website.
So they're listing carbon breakages, what for? What's the purpose of it?

cooldad

Quite a lot:

But the RSPCA might come after you.

edhornby

I know a guy who did well at the enduro world champs in Italy (came second) and was riding a 29er lurcher from OO with a 100m fork and he said it was great, light and strong and all the things you'd need generally :-)

actually thinking about it, his mate came off his and it apparently bounced down the hill and was unscathed so although it's not a very scientific study, it would appear that they are robust

The Northern Monkey

passout wrote:

You'll probably be fine, just don't look at this website: http://www.bustedcarbon.com/

Seriously though, I broken more alu. frames & components over the years than I have carbon.

Its does seem like a pretty pointless website...

From Jeff wrote:

after incident with a car at 35mph my bike is in pieces an I have multiple broken bones as result

Yeah, so what exactly would have been different on any other bike?

Car + Bike + 35mph = fail!

bails87

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Its does seem like a pretty pointless website...

From Jeff wrote:

after incident with a car at 35mph my bike is in pieces an I have multiple broken bones as result

Yeah, so what exactly would have been different on any other bike?

Car + Bike + 35mph = fail!

Quite. :?

He almost seems to blame the carbon bike, rather than the car, for the broken bones.

njee20

I rode a lightweight carbon road bike into a car at 35mph, forks shattered, (aluminium) rim, bar and shifter all completely destroyed, frame was fine though, rode it for another year then sold it on.

mcnultycop

edhornby wrote:

I know a guy who did well at the enduro world champs in Italy (came second) and was riding a 29er lurcher from OO with a 100m fork and he said it was great, light and strong and all the things you'd need generally :-)

I know 29ers are big, but do you really need that much travel?

YeehaaMcgee

njee20 wrote:

I rode a lightweight carbon road bike into a car at 35mph, forks shattered, (aluminium) rim, bar and shifter all completely destroyed, frame was fine though, rode it for another year then sold it on.

What did you do that for, was the driver being a cnut?

mfereborn

Cheers lads, the guys at on one suggest i should consider the lurcher however to be honest i'd rather not pay that for a frame (i know that sounds stupid but i have most of the parts for the whippet so im trying to keep this cheap-ish).

I used to fish frequently using carbon fibre rods made by companies such as conoflex and zziplex and launching lead weights to the horizon was never a problem - this should inspire confidence in the material but it just doesnt. maybe i should just taker the plunge!

YeehaaMcgee

Fishing rods? Bloody F1 cars are made of carbon fibre!

IShaggy

mfereborn wrote:

Cheers lads, the guys at on one suggest i should consider the lurcher however to be honest i'd rather not pay that for a frame (i know that sounds stupid but i have most of the parts for the whippet so im trying to keep this cheap-ish).

I used to fish frequently using carbon fibre rods made by companies such as conoflex and zziplex and launching lead weights to the horizon was never a problem - this should inspire confidence in the material but it just doesnt. maybe i should just taker the plunge!

If the guys failing to smash the carbon frame against a concrete post in the link that I posted doesn't inspire confidence then nothing will.

njee20

What did you do that for, was the driver being a cnut?

Yeah, the dosage was a bit high that day, he looked at me strangely, so I nailed her! Bitch.

I was undertaking traffic, she was coming towards me, car I was undertaking signalled her to go, so she turned across my path and I hit her nearside. Matron. £3500 damage to the car. I was chuffed!

mfereborn

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Fishing rods? Bloody F1 cars are made of carbon fibre!

And Ducati Motorcycle Swing arms, but my fishing rod related comment - 6 ounces of fishing weight under a powerful cast can create round about 8lb's an ounce of force under peak load. All this going through a 2-3mm piece of carbon tubing... Thats quite something surely? :P

But obviously this use, and the automotive industry are somewhat different to that of the cyclist - however the more i think about it the more faith i get!

Wheres the pocket money?

bails87

njee20 wrote:

What did you do that for, was the driver being a cnut?

Yeah, the dosage was a bit high that day, he looked at me strangely, so I nailed her! *****.

I was undertaking traffic, she was coming towards me, car I was undertaking signalled her to go, so she turned across my path and I hit her nearside. Matron. £3500 damage to the car. I was chuffed!

I really don't like how most cycle lanes encourage cyclists to undertake. This is why.



....hang on, you were UNDERTAKING AT 35MPH?!?! :shock: That's worryingly close to suicidal!

YeehaaMcgee

njee20 wrote:

Yeah, the dosage was a bit high that day, he looked at me strangely, so I nailed her! *****.

mfereborn wrote:

But obviously this use, and the automotive industry are somewhat different to that of the cyclist - however the more i think about it the more faith i get!

There's actually not that much difference.
One of the hard to grasp things about carbon fibre construction is that you can create something as stiff, or as flexible as you need (within reason). So you can build a certian amount of controlled flex into say a fishing rod, or make F1 suspension wishbones absolutely super-stiff.

cooldad

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

absolutely super-stiff.

The obvious responce is obvious.