From an engineering perspective, the many materials lumped under “carbon fiber” are remarkable in their strength to weight ratios and their ability to be custom tuned for given applications. In bicycles, I tend to be of the belief that carbon is overused by consumers either not informed or willfully ignorant of the potential for small damage to cause catastrophic failure in carbon parts. Carbon bicycle parts can be some of the best riding and lightest items on the market, but are by and large disposable items. Minor accidents and deep scratches can end up causing components to fail in rather spectacular ways. Busted Carbon has pages upon pages of photos of broken carbon parts, some from classic “JRA” (Just Riding Along) stories and others from crashes and traffic accidents. If for nothing else, flipping through tens of thousands of dollars of broken parts and bad days makes me glad my bicycle is currently in one piece.
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I personally feel like carbon gets a bumm rap. As a career mechanic with a degree in Industrial Design. I have seen my fair share of failed carbon. However These parts would have failed if they where steel or aluminum as well. Its just that Carbon fails more catastrophically. In fact the yield strength of a carbon part is often higher than an equivalent metal part. Yes if carbon gets a big scratch it can be compromised but common just take care of your shit.
I was at the start of the Halloween-Misfit alley-cat a few years back and some kid said “Dude you ride a carbon fork? That’s crazy! If you hit a curb your dead.” I responded “If I hit a curb with a steel fork im dead to right.”
I have had an aluminum steerer fail on my while JRA. I have been riding and racing on carbon parts for over ten years now and have never had a failure while riding.
No carbon is not for everyone but why the hate?
Who sponsors this website ALCOA? Just my two cents thanks for reading.
Glass is class, but steel is real.
(old automotive saying)
I recall back in my days of studying mechanical engineering, that a lot of CFRP failures have to do with carbon composite pieces being bonded with aluminum. The aluminum causes corrosion which breaks down the structure of the carbon composite. (Sadly, I wrote a paper about it, but remember very little about the topic.)
If I recall, it can be prevented by insulating the carbon with traditional fiber glass. Do bike part manufacturers do this?
This was a few years ago when carbon was starting to become big, and I haven’t studied ME in a few years, so I may be way off.
If one really wants to spend this kind of ca$h and still want longevity and abuse-proof performance go Ti…quality Ti.
Josie, I think we would have a better shot getting money from US Steel than ALCOA.
I’ll throw in a nickle or two (or maybe a story now and then).
But for people like me, 6′3″ and 235 pounds, I could lose more weight than my bike weighs (actually, I’m only about 15 pounds overweight) so I am not about to spend money to save a couple ounces.
Those pot-bellied guys with stretchy pants and VERY expensive bikes that are in a bike club that rides around where I live just look silly. Buy a cheaper aluminum or steel bike and lose the belly would seem to be a better plan…but that’s just me.
What does all that have to do with carbon fiber breaking? Well, nothing I guess.
carbon rules for road racing, rather race carbon commute on steel
@Nick — yes, a few manufacturers line their seat tubes with a thin layer of straight fiberglass to prevent galvanic corrosion between carbon tube and aluminum seatpost. The benefit is probably negated now that carbon seatposts have become so widely accepted by the carbon crowd.
@ Ghost Rider - What about carbon forks with aluminum steerers, and carbon cranks with (I assume) threaded aluminum inserts for pedals ?
Busted carbon…
isn’t that redundant?
Real men ride steel, baby.
Frankly I am tired of underqualified luddites wandering around spouting off all sorts of generalized nonsense about frame materials, carbon specifically. By busted carbon’s, and this authors logic, because 6 of 7 photos on one blog dedicated to pictures of broken bike parts, carbon must somehow fail far more often than other frame materials.
In fifteen years I have seen frames of every conceivable material fail due to manufacturing problems, or brake due to rider error. I have only one generalizeable rule, shitty construction and stupid riding will brake bike parts. It does not seem to matter what that bike part is made of. Ironically the hotspot of shitty construction is in Chinese made cheap cro-mo frames*, perhaps because people incorrectly assume that steel is somehow more real, than alloy or carbon of the same weight. Go fig.