I understand that due diligence can be different than with steel, because, as was said before, CF is relatively new, and the consequences of frame/fork failure are greater. The one full CF bike I bought was from REI (I no longer own the bike). I've been an REI member for 40+ years & have come to trust their product selection, and they are a nationwide retailer who hopefully doesn't want their members to get injured and sue them. They also have a great return policy if the bike has problems. The most recent CF fork I bought was from my LBS, where the owner intensely dislikes carbon forks so I went with his recommendation of the the 'least unsafe' fork. As I said before, I would probably buy CF from Salsa, mostly because they are well-established, aren't weight-obsessed and focus on off-road bikes. I would be less inclined to buy CF from Trek or Specialized because they are more focused on ultra light weight and bleeding edge technology. I would be very reluctant to buy from a new startup company such as 3T or Open UP, even if praised in BQ. I know this isn't great advice and maybe I'm too gullible or trusting; but it's what I did or would do, in addition to the usual online research.
Jack Seattle I ask because as far as I can see, there's virtually nothing that any > prospective owner can do in the way of research that would help in > identifying good vs poor carbon bicycles. I just don't see what sort of > due diligence you're expecting prospective purchasers to perform, and > thought that perhaps you might have though of something specific and > obvious that I've overlooked, having very little experience buying bikes > from bike shops and zero experience buying carbon. There's no Consumer > Reports for bicycles (and when CR tries to write up bicycles the results > are virtually useless), most of what most bike mags publish is useless > drivel, and BQ mostly does customs / handbuilts. > > On 07/26/2018 08:10 PM, jack loudon wrote: > > "And what would the nature of this due diligence on the part of the buyer > / owner be?" > > The nature of the due diligence would be the research most of us would do > when making a major purchase, which is primarily checking the reputation of > manufacturer, but also looking for history of damaged or recalled frames, > asking questions on this list etc. I think most bicycles have to meet EN > or CEN standards when sold in Europe and elsewhere, even unbranded Chinese > frames (for what that's worth). But you already knew all this, so I'm not > sure what you were expecting in the way of an answer from me. > > Jack > > On Thursday, July 26, 2018 at 12:15:57 PM UTC-7, Steve Palincsar wrote: >> >> >> >> On 07/26/2018 12:48 PM, jack loudon wrote: >> >> Like Joe and Patrick, I also think CF *can* be safe but the buyer/owner >> needs to do a lot more due diligence than when buying steel. Because the >> consequences of CF failure are so great, sloppy design and construction >> simply can't be tolerated. I would tend to trust company like Salsa (for >> instance) because their CF frames seem to emphasize strength over extreme >> light weight. Their Cutthroat has had plenty of testing on the Tour Divide >> and other races, and if Salsa has had CF frame or fork failures, I haven't >> heard of them. OTOH, Salsa had a steel fork recall awhile back. IMO it's >> not the material but the integrity and expertise of the designer/builder. >> >> >> And what would the nature of this due diligence on the part of the buyer >> / owner be? >> -- >> > Steve Palincsar > Alexandria, Virginia > USA > > -- 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.
