Busted Carbon

[Van Nick]

Some scarey pictures of what can happen to carbon frames.

http://www.bustedcarbon.com

 

[Young Un]

one word; ouch!

 

[yenrod]

I'm definately NOT getting carbon now !

 

[Headgardener]

I'm with Yenrod on this one give me a good steel or aluminimum bike anytime.

 

[Dave5N]

Yebbut... Seen a few steel and Alu bikes fail in equallly dramatic ways.

 

[Keith Oates]

Not good viewing but as Dave5N has said it can happen to bikes made from other materials. I think the main thing is to give your bike a good inspection (such as when it gets its regular cleaning) or after it has been subjected to a heavy knock and if you see anything suspicious stop riding it until the problem is solved even if it means ultimately getting another bike!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Globalti]

Would bike insurance cover you for major beakages?

 

[beanzontoast]

My impression of carbon is as an experimental performance material. I've never thought of it as being a replacement for aluminium or steel and as a 'pootling' and commuter cyclist, wouldn't consider a carbon bike even if the prices were similar. Maybe it's a bit conservative of me, but I would need a good reason to change from materials that do the job perfectly well for me.

Keith's point about the regular inspection is a sound one for any bike regardless of construction materials. I've not seen much mention of metal fatigue in bicycles on this forum, but it would be interesting to know more about this.

 

[Kirstie]

There's a really easy way to test for any delamination with carbon fibre parts. Delamination is when the different layers of fibre start to seperate, and will make the whole structure fail. All you need to do is take a 50p piece, and tap it along the part concerned. If the noise is a clean noise (ie no fuzziness) then it's fine. If there is any fuzziness or vibration in the noise, it has started to delaminate and is ****ed. You should do this regularly with carbon parts.

This is from a mate who makes F1 car parts out of carbon fibre, so knows a thing or two about it.

 

[Mr Pig]

My impression of carbon is as an experimental performance material. I've never thought of it as being a replacement for aluminium or steel...

I totally agree, but it is worth noting that many of these failures are the result of crashes and that metal bikes can fail too. Carbon just seem to be much better at it! ;0)

 

[willhub]

My Carbon steerer on my CAAD9 scares me

 

[Chonker]

The aerospace and motorsport industry uses loads of the stuff in far more critical componentry and have done for years, it's hardly cutting edge stuff. Of course both aircraft and racing cars are inspected thoroughly and regularly and are engineered to a very high standard. If carbon frames are failing it's an engineering/manufacturing fault not a problem with the material

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i wouldn't ride one every day, that's for sure. an idiot at work rides to work on a spesh tarmac comp when he's got a perfectly good spesh hybrid as well. it's only a 5 mile ride too…

 

[Tim Bennet.]

If carbon frames are failing it's an engineering/manufacturing fault not a problem with the material

Indeed, but more important is most of the failures on that stupid site are of components involved in massive accidents such as being side swiped by a 42 ton truck. Is there a similar site showing the aftermath of such an accident on a steel, aluminium or titanium frame? Or doesn't that sort of thing exorcise the 'told you so' bigots of your average cycle club?

Carbon can be as strong as you like. Google for the photos of that million dollar sports car that was crashed recently by a teenager at 150 mph. She walked away from the crash with slight bruising despite every part of the car, EXCEPT the carbonfibre passenger shell being totally destroyed.

If you want a bike strong enough to be run over by a truck, then carbon is your only option. But most people are rational enough to realise that 'strong enough' for normal cycling, plus a reasonable margin of safety, is what they need as this allows them to have a bike that is usefully light and affordable.

 

[dan_bo]

I pulled the carbon steerer in two on the kaffenback a couple of months back when climbing a steep hill. Luckily I wasn't dropping off holme moss at 40mph......