Argh! My head hurts :(

[Phixion]

OK so I've been offered a £1000 carbon fiber bike, full 105 groupset for £650.

It's brand new and gone less than 20 miles. I just worry because it's CF...

Am I stupid for turning it down or what? My other option is a Specialized Allez Sport 08 for £599 with Tiagra groupset.

What would you do?

I'd love to have the 105 groupset, I just worry about the CF damaging etc.

 

[dodgy]

Go for whichever bike you prefer, but try not to judge because you think the carbon bike will fold up, it won't.

Dave.

 

[RedBike]

It's a bit of a myth that carbon fibre is delicate. So long as you don't miss-treat the frame there's nothing to worry about.

 

[Phixion]

It just worries me when it comes to the frames stability, I've heard that CF can become damaged inside, also the glue they use to assemble the frame can dry up over time due to UV light rays... which courses bikes to fall apart.

I don't want to be riding down a hill at 30mph, hit a bump and end arse over shoot.

I'm really lost as to which way to go here. There's no way I'd be able to afford a replacement if I crash and break the frame.

 

[Kirstie]

There's a really simple way to test the frame for delamination*. Take a 50p piece, and lightly tap it along each of the tubes, from the joins to the centre and out again. If the tone is clear, then there is no delamination. If it is fuzzy or if there is any buzzing in the tone, then it is starting to delaminate. This is from one of my friends who makes carbon fibre parts for F1 cars.

CF is a joy to ride and I have no issues with my CF road bike.

*where the strands of CF begin to seperate cos the glue fails.

 

[And]

Phixion,

this site is worth a look:

http://materials.open.ac.uk/mem/mem_ccf.htm

look about half way down for carbon frames: "Although very strong and very stiff in theory, several catastrophic failures of carbon frames have been reported in accidents" - I'm no expert, but I don't think delamination will be an issue. I'll agree with RedBike though, generally it is misuse that causes the trouble.

 

[Ludwig]

We all saw they way that one snapped in half in the Tour de France. I regards almost like mdf or chipboard in terms of furniture.

 

[Scoosh]

We all saw they way that one snapped in half in the Tour de France. I regards almost like mdf or chipboard in terms of furniture.

Would that be the one that ran into a traffic bollard thing at about 50kph?

Mind you, from your previous posts, you don't want any convincing that carbon is any good - you've already made up your mind.
That's fine, then.

Next thread .....

 

[John the Monkey]

Phixion, if you can get hold of a copy, Mike Burrows' article in "Cycle" (the CTC mag) gives a very good run through of the properties of carbon frames.

There's some discussion in this thread on the relative merits too, including this post by Tim Bennett, which might reassure you;
http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=206287&postcount=61

In your position, I'd be £650 lighter, and riding a carbon bike (so long as I liked the ride, and the type of bike suited the riding I wanted to do on it, I mean you can fit 'guards and a rack to these things, can't you..? )

 

[asterix]

Yes I can see the problem. You only have to drop a pencil once

 

[yello]

but just think of all the pencils you could make out of a carbon fibre frame

 

[ComedyPilot]

If you can afford it, buy it. If you can't don't.

 

[mr Mag00]

90% of carbon bikes fold in half and shatter within 27 minutes of being built. That's why they're so expensive.

Carbon is really very cheap -that's why pencils only cost 10p. CF bikes cost so much because only 1 in 10 makes it out of the factory in one piece.

do you have evidence of this and im not sue the relevence of pencils to the arguement i assume tongue in cheek?

 

[jasper]

Make sure the carbon bike actually fits you before parting with any dosh.

 

[wlc1]

If you don't them let me know and I will. Seriously