The YouTube style of riding has upped the requirements for bike and fork testing, but the tests still aren't super reflective of how and why things break in real life. ALL carbon frames and forks pass the tests, and yet they continue to fail, because of the brittle nature of it and the unpredictability of the forces. Airplane makers,. who test a LOT and have gone ahead with carbon in certain applications, are now backing away. I am not an airplane maker, but I also don't make up things. Our testers in Taiwan--who also test bikes for tons of others--have a fairly low opinion of the tests' ability to predict real actual performance results. The FIRST generation Appaloosa forks came within 5 percent of passing the toughest mountain bike test. The testers said, "It will never break in use, but carbon forks that DO pass will." We thickened the crown and blades, anyway, so now--for better or worse--they pass. In real life they're not any safer, but both are safer than carbon, because of how they fail. On any steel fork, if you ride with ear buds and never pay any attention, you'll miss months of warnings, but eventually the noise or funny movement will jerk you alert in time to save yourself. In the carbon vs aluminum test--I'd still rather ride aluminum. It's a more predictable and less brittle than carbon. You could throw in a cheap steel fork from granpapa's Huffy, and it wouldn't pass the test, but it would still be a safer fork, because of how steel fails. Cheap bike steel fails in impact and compression even better than good bike steel! But good bike steel is easily good enough, and wins on other tests. Many of you have seen our own fork tests. If you haven't, read the disclaimer on page one, so you don't misunderstand the test. https://vimeo.com/106021360
On Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 10:40 AM, hugh flynn <[email protected]> wrote: > Never has the phrase "your mileage may vary" had more meaning than in a > discussion of the failure mode of carbon fiber bike parts... > > Hugh "fail gracefully" Flynn > Newburyport, MA > > > On Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 1:38 PM masmojo <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Just saying we should be able to have a spirited discussion, be objective >> and not take things personally. >> >> I am posting this link, but I should qualify that I am not trying to make >> any particular point; just that I was somewhat surprised at the punishment >> inflicted on these CF frames. It made me sort of rethink my stance on CF a >> little. Still, this video prompts a lot of questions in itself. It is >> notable that when the carbon does fail, it does so spectacularly. >> >> https://youtu.be/w5eMMf11uhM >> >> I think . . . Well . . . Draw your own conclusions. :-) >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- > Hugh Flynn > Newburyport, MA > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > topic/rbw-owners-bunch/bZskFzjF_I4/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
