Commuting with Carbon

[KneesUp]

I normally commute on my bombproof steel dropbar-MTB thing, which I cobbled together largely because the roads around here were so bad when I started to ride to work that to do so on a road bike was pretty uncomfortable and I felt, slightly dangerous given the sheer number of steering-deflecting holes. I spent literally about a third of the time out of the saddle to help absorb shock, so 26" rims with lovely wide, low-pressure slicks made it all much more bearable.

However, this morning I looked at my neglected road bike and decided to commute on that because most of my route has been resurfaced now. Note that 'most'. The bike is nothing special - just an old aluminium frame with carbon forks, but comparing it to the other bike is like comparing a Formula 1 car to a Citroen Picasso. All was going well (I have a sprung saddle now) and speed was being attained, when I missed a pothole and thus didn't avoid it, and the bike make a 'clunk-crack' noise.

I immediately assumed I'd damaged the forks, and got off to impotently look for cracks in the lacquer and decided that as I couldn't see any my inspection was as complete as it could be, but aware that actually I knew nothing. The bike seems ok, and I think on reflection the noise was the rear mudguard deflecting and then whacking into the bridge (the bridge mount is missing) but it made me wonder - those of you who commute with carbon forks, or a whole carbon bike - do you worry about the toll urban roads take on your bike / forks? Do you believe modern carbon to be as sturdy as steel? Or do you just not care? I think the thing that worries me is that my steel bike will give me some sort of warning before it disintegrates. I would image that with carbon I'd get very little warning of failure.

 

[S-Express]

It's just another frame material. They make aircraft wings and F1 chassis out of it. I'm amazed people still think like this....

 

[rivers]

The way I see it, is I'm taking my carbon bike out on club runs, leisure rides, and sportives on English roads, then it can handle the rigour of my commute, which actually has a nicer surface then most of the roads in Bristol, Bath, and the surrounding countryside of the west country.

 

[KneesUp]

It's just another frame material. They make aircraft wings and F1 chassis out of it. I'm amazed people still think like this....

I think it was the noise it made - I hadn't given it another thought until I hit the (fairly deep) pothole at quite a decent speed (it was downhill) resulting in that godawful craaaack. I'll replace the bridge mount on the rear mudguard

 

[mjr]

It's just another frame material. They make aircraft wings and F1 chassis out of it. I'm amazed people still think like this....

Papier mâché would be "just another frame material" too. Still doesn't mean I want to ride it!

Do aircraft wings and F1 chassis fail gracefully or suddenly? Or do you mean to say that you think all carbon fibre behaves the same or something?

 

[Dommo]

I've used my road bike for thousands of kms of commuting. It's an alu frame with carbon forks on 23's at 120 PSI with 90+kg of me on top of it. No snapped bits yet... Apart from my arm, but I don't think that's relevant to this discussion

 

[S-Express]

Do aircraft wings and F1 chassis fail gracefully or suddenly? Or do you mean to say that you think all carbon fibre behaves the same or something?

I mean to say that the OP is over-thinking it.

 

[Elybazza61]

Used my Planet X XLS for commuting and it was fine,had a few bumps and knocks but handled it all.Only downside was no mounts for mudguards but it is a 'race' CX frame.

 

[Milkfloat]

Downhill mountain bikes can be made out of carbon fiber - they certainly see far more action than a pot hole.

 

[vickster]

Inability to mount a proper rack stops me commuting on the carbon...and riding it often. I like to be able to carry a proper D Lock and stop where and for as long as I want

 

[ianrauk]

Keep riding bud. Your frame and forks are ok. Carbon takes a shytle load to get damaged.

 

[cyberknight]

Ridden ally bike with carbon fork for years, nowt has snapped yet .

 

[Drago]

Carbon is tough. True, if it were to fail it would likely be explosively with no warning, but the odds of that are very, very, very slim. Keep it clean so you can eyeball it regularly for damage, sorted.

I wouldn't cite aircraft and race cars as an example of carbon's excellence though - F1 suspension failure isn't uncommon, and 787s have a knack of crashing or even disappearing for reasons unknown...

 

[Tim Hall]

Papier mâché would be "just another frame material" too. Still doesn't mean I want to ride it!

"would be" is about right. I can't think of any papier mâché frames, so best not to worry about them.

 

[Disabledcyclist40]

Carbon is tough. True, if it were to fail it would likely be explosively with no warning, but the odds of that are very, very, very slim. Keep it clean so you can eyeball it regularly for damage, sorted.

I wouldn't cite aircraft and race cars as an example of carbon's excellence though - F1 suspension failure isn't uncommon, and 787s have a knack of crashing or even disappearing for reasons unknown...

Not a single 787 has been crashed tho