My pal bunnyman has been showing me some things made from carbon fibre, as well as some things he made from the material. What has resulted is the most interesting insight into the material.
1) it is not all that fragile. You should see what happens to the radio control cars that our pal bunnyman races. Sure, the chassis will eventually break, but our buddy has hit the wall at well over 30 mph, and only a chip on the front of the chassis. His nerf bars made of 5mm dragon plate (a birch/carbon composite) took major hits into the boards, also going at about 30 mph. The nerf bars look newly cut.
2) it is infinitely tuneable. What is the difference between a 2mm chassis plate and a 3mm chassis plate? The 2mm plate is more forgiving for lower-traction asphalt, whereas a 3mm chassis is for a high traction track like carpet. Bike frames can be made the same way, though from what bunnyman says, you want the same amount of plies pretty much everywhere (with the exception of junctions like head tube to top tube, BB shell to every other joint, etc.). You will not save that much weight by using fewer plies, and you will have a better product.
3) it can be shaped any way you want, as long as there are no sharp corners. bunnyman showed me what happens to carbon monocoques that have sharp, abrupt changes in shape: they end up weak.
4) there is no way to make carbon ride like steel,ti, aluminium, metal matrix, or bamboo. It may have some of the same flex characteristics, but the ride will never be the same.
5) most carbon is underbuilt. I saw a fork our buddy sawed apart, and I was aghast once he explained what was going on in that fork. I swore me to secrecy on the manufacturer.
6) while a trained monkey can build carbon, many products look like an untrained ape did it. See #5.
Call me Big Dick
1) it is not all that fragile. You should see what happens to the radio control cars that our pal bunnyman races. Sure, the chassis will eventually break, but our buddy has hit the wall at well over 30 mph, and only a chip on the front of the chassis. His nerf bars made of 5mm dragon plate (a birch/carbon composite) took major hits into the boards, also going at about 30 mph. The nerf bars look newly cut.
2) it is infinitely tuneable. What is the difference between a 2mm chassis plate and a 3mm chassis plate? The 2mm plate is more forgiving for lower-traction asphalt, whereas a 3mm chassis is for a high traction track like carpet. Bike frames can be made the same way, though from what bunnyman says, you want the same amount of plies pretty much everywhere (with the exception of junctions like head tube to top tube, BB shell to every other joint, etc.). You will not save that much weight by using fewer plies, and you will have a better product.
3) it can be shaped any way you want, as long as there are no sharp corners. bunnyman showed me what happens to carbon monocoques that have sharp, abrupt changes in shape: they end up weak.
4) there is no way to make carbon ride like steel,ti, aluminium, metal matrix, or bamboo. It may have some of the same flex characteristics, but the ride will never be the same.
5) most carbon is underbuilt. I saw a fork our buddy sawed apart, and I was aghast once he explained what was going on in that fork. I swore me to secrecy on the manufacturer.
6) while a trained monkey can build carbon, many products look like an untrained ape did it. See #5.
Call me Big Dick