Carbon Fiber DH parts?

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Carbon Fiber DH parts?
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flag OmG-ITz-JeBuS
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 8:49 Quote
Hey guys, what do you think of carbon parts on DH bikes?

Thanks
flag Redwolf2
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 9:28 Quote
What kind of parts.....?
flag Antti69
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 12:35 Quote
Well, they are the future. Light, strong, you name it. In the future they will be a lot cheaper when they start real mass production.
flag cartera
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 12:44 Quote
i wanna give it 5-7 years before i have any on my bike for the simple reason that im super hard on my bikes and i wanna see how they hold up for other people who ride hard and not just doing a race a month type of shit.
flag jpgauthier
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 12:56 Quote
LOL carbon fibre is stronger in terms of strength and abuse then aluminum aluminum doesnt take stress very well while Carbon does and Carbon is lighter and the same strength or stronger.
flag cartera
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 13:03 Quote
jpgauthier wrote:
LOL carbon fibre is stronger in terms of strength and abuse then aluminum aluminum doesnt take stress very well while Carbon does and Carbon is lighter and the same strength or stronger.

i know that carbon fiber is stronger in terms of strength but i havent heard alot of people who have carbon parts say much good about them. dont get me wrong i really wanna try some carbon parts but dont wanna fork out alot of money on something that is so new to the mtb industry.
flag jpgauthier
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 13:05 Quote
So New ?
Not so much.

Honestly carbon is worth the extra money for me.
Maybe not for the weekend warrior.
flag cartera
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 13:07 Quote
i say new because i dont recall many people using cf on their dh bikes 3-4 years ago but now alot of people are looking into getting some carbon parts.
flag OmG-ITz-JeBuS
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 13:20 Quote
If someone would make a company that would make carbon fibre part specifically for DH/FR, that where very strong and light weight, they would make a fortune.
flag oceen246
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 13:47 Quote
I don;t care whether it is aluminum or carbon fiber. You give a me a good warranty and reasonable price, and i will rock any gears. I'm not an engineer so i will not pretend to be one. If something goes through some hardcore testing and survive, i will ride it. Hell, if any local have something new, i do the caveman test and knock on it to try to have a feel on how much material there is.
flag fantaman
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 23:00 Quote
Carbon DH bars FTW,been smashing them for my 3rd season and still not broken them even with some big crashes.I guess my 200 euros are well spend 3 years ago.
flag Nobble
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 23:21 Quote
jpgauthier wrote:
LOL carbon fibre is stronger in terms of strength and abuse then aluminum aluminum doesnt take stress very well while Carbon does and Carbon is lighter and the same strength or stronger.
On paper CF is a better material, however in application it isnt so great, i've seen CF bars crack, and everyone i know with a CF seatpost has cracked it too.

Dont get me wrong, CF has potential to produce some great parts, but i think it's gonna be some time before we can use the material well enough to be as reliable as aluminum for DH parts.
flag jpgauthier
Posted: Apr 24, 2011 at 8:28 Quote
So Nobble, you are saying only Carbon breaks ?
Not aluminum, I am willing to bet 100$ that there is atleast twice the ratio of broken aluminum bars to that of Carbon bars.
And that is funny because the only seatposts Ive broken are Aluminum ones and now one year on a EC90 and no problems of cracks ?
flag ezekiel
Posted: Apr 24, 2011 at 8:59 Quote
Nobble wrote:
On paper CF is a better material, however in application it isnt so great, i've seen CF bars crack, and everyone i know with a CF seatpost has cracked it too.

There's nothing wrong with it in application.

Quite simply carbon fiber parts are not for everyone just like any other high end part or material on the market. The thing is that there are certain precautions that must be taken with carbon fiber parts that aren't as necessary with something like aluminum.

For instance if all your friends are running QRs on their seattubes like most people, you have no reasonable way of measuring the clamping force on the post. Overtightening a carbon piece is probably the easiest way to cause a premature failure. The same goes for tightening stem bolts without using a torque wrench and proper torque specs.

Another thing that is more necessary is routine inspection of parts, this includes removing posts and bars on a reasonable basis and checking along the clamping lines. Any amount of gouging in a seat post or a bar and it should be replaced but people don't want to have to spend the money again so they continue using it and then complain when it breaks.

I've used the same carbon fiber bar ends on my XC bike for about 8 years now. They've been crashed into trees and rocks, they've tumbled end over end down hills, I've landed on them off a couple decent sized falls and they still hold up just fine.
flag Nobble
Posted: Apr 24, 2011 at 9:44 Quote
jpgauthier wrote:
So Nobble, you are saying only Carbon breaks ?
Not aluminum, I am willing to bet 100$ that there is atleast twice the ratio of broken aluminum bars to that of Carbon bars.
And that is funny because the only seatposts Ive broken are Aluminum ones and now one year on a EC90 and no problems of cracks ?
If you really want to compare the two material you'd have to compare the ratio of the amounts sold to the amount that fail for both aluminum and CF then compare the two ratios.

From my personal experience CF is not as reliable as aluminum other people may say otherwise, but for now i will not be running CF for anything other than XC
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