I think the crux of the issue is not how long a carbon frame can last- of course there are old carbon frames out there, being ridden today.
I think the point is that EVERYTHING fails eventually under sufficient stress- the million dollar question being, when something does fail, how does it do it? Does it fail catastrophically and all of a sudden, or does it bend, or creak, or exhibit strange behavior & warning signs before completely biting the dust? Because if not, and the thing in question is a head-tube junction or fork blade, and is bearing your weight down the road, it doesn't matter if it's 1 year old or 20 years old; you have a problem. On Mar 7, 3:19 am, bfd <bfd...@yahoo.com> wrote: > On Mar 6, 9:41 am, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote: > > > On Mar 6, 2010, at 10:22 AM, bfd wrote: > > >Grant's pointing out the problems with carbon doesn't strike me as > >desperate, it > > strikes me as concerned about people's safety. > > OK, maybe I wasn't clear, I was only talking about carbon FRAMES; not > carbon forks, carbon seatpost, carbon handlebars or any other carbon > parts. Maybe I'm not Grant and "connected" or "in" so I don't see or > hear that much about carbon failing. Maybe I only see my little group > and nobody has ever had a carbon FRAME failed. Yes, its anecdotal and > really doesn't prove anything. BUT, then you have Grant making his > doom and gloom comments about carbon frame failing and unrepairable is > incorrect. > > For example, on page 1 of his 2010 bike catalog, he states "Carbon is > light, for instant mass appeal. It is theoretically strong, but if the > reality approached the theory, carbon frames and forks would never > break. And yet, failures are common, sudden failures are the norm, and > nobody who knows carbon rides old carbon." Really, I'm riding a 13 > year old Calfee with a kestrel carbon fork (yes, steel steerer tube) > that I bought USED in 1997 that supposedly had 2500 miles on it. It > now has over 25K miles on it and interesting, no sudden failure. Craig > Calfee has riders on his bikes that are 20 years old with over 100k > miles (100,000 MILES) with no problem. Stating that all carbon bike > are subject to sudden failures is incorrect. > > Further in the same catalog on page 16 he compares his roadeo bike to > a mcrb (modern carbon road bike) and states "The MCRB should be > retired in four years, and may force your retirement sooner." Really? > a mcrb should be retired in four years? On what basis? Paranoia? Or > just another way to discredit carbon because it outsells his bikes 100 > to 1? > > If he's only referring to a carbon fork, then he ought to say so and > be specific. But, generalizing that carbon frames are unrepairable is > wrong. > > Note, besides a Calfee, I also have a STEEL cross bike. I enjoy both > bikes and expect them to last at least another 20 years. Good Luck! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
