On Jul 2, 2012, at 2:23 PM, Garth wrote:
Steve, My hypothesis is for each of us, if we wish, to look at our
own prejudices towards a material we may actually know nothing
about ! Just becasue so and so says it was this or that . It may be
true for them... but is it true for me ? And if your favourite
frame could be 5 pounds lighter for the same price .... would you
still choose your heavier one ? .. after all ... weight doesn't
matter... right ? lol :)
There are a couple of things to consider.
First, if you make the frame and fork out of CF, I think you would be
hard pressed to remove 5 pounds vs a modern steel frame. There just
isn't that much difference. To remove 5 or 10 pounds from a bicycle
setup means you have to pursue minimizing weight in componentry as well.
Second, from working in the bicycle industry and the fishing/outdoor
industry for a while, I've seen many, many, many Carbon Fiber failures
- a number of which I've experienced firsthand. The issue is - and
always will be - the nature of the way CF fails. In my direct
experience, it fails catastrophically and with no warning. It
folds. It splits. It severs. It cracks. (And Aluminum tends to
fail in a similar fashion, though in my experience it at least gives
more warning if you actively look for surface cracks.) Once it takes
a direct impact, you no longer trust it.
Way back in pre-history. A Person Who Knows told me that the best
bike is the one that gets you home. (It wasn't GP, by the way). I've
kept that nugget in the back of my brain since then. Even when I was
getting transfixed by lighter and lighter bits, that kept getting more
and more fiddly and idiosyncratic. When I realized I was spending
more time coaxing my bikes to work than riding them, I started to
reassess the idea of weight meaning everything.
My bikes (well, all but my old soft-nose mtb which I don't really ride
that much) are steel because it is the best material for me, the way I
ride and my piece of mind when I'm rolling down the mountain at
speed. Yeah, there are places you can focus on to sensibly remove
excess weight, but the times that really matters (as has been pretty
well documented) are pretty much when the road points upward.
- Jim / Cyclofiend.com
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