Al frames are definitely more likely to crack and fracture but stems usually bend. It depends a lot on the alloy and the circumstances. Saying anything about Ti is hard, it is a good material but I don’t know very much about its failure modes. You can get similar tensile strengths out of some steels but they will be a bit heavier, 853 for example.
I doubt a racing-grade aluminum frame would survive anything that would kill an equivalent carbon frame, personally.
If you’re commuting and locking up, steel still makes the most sense. Locking up thin walled aluminum or carbon is risky business. Racing competitively on steel is a bit of a different story though it seems, after you get out of cat 4/5.
I know I’m a dumbass, but I was under the assumption that carbon fiber as we know it is basically just plastic.
Dude, Carbon fiber.
Not entirely dumbass, just about 80%. Carbon fiber as we know it is actually called CFRP or carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Its a composite material made from a weave of carbon fibers suspended in a resin matrix. Most of the volume is taken by the resin but almost all the strength comes from the fibers. Construction methods are similar to those used for fiberglass layouts. Resin/Fiber ratio and weave patters are really important.
It sounds like plastic when you flick it.
That’s where I got my dumbass assumption from.
Because the part you flick is plastic… resin (epoxy) is a polymer (plastic). So your flicking isn’t steering you in the wrong direction but its not the same material all the way through.
Aluminum would do the same in a head-on collision, or at least be damaged so badly that it wouldn’t be rideable any longer. A steel frame would buckle badly enough that you’d need to get the top tube and downtube replaced. And probably the headtube.
pothole. not head on collision. stolen from bikeforums road section.
Maybe the chump shouldn’t go nose first into potholes that big? Gotta be pretty inattentive to just not lift the wheel.
Or maybe it was a structural flaw in the tt, and when it failed the dt had no chance.
Wow, fuck. Sounds like a manufacturing defect, for sure. I mean, running right into a deep pothole (like the one that it would take to overpower that frame) is stupid, but the frame shouldn’t just fail like that.
Oh my.
radial laced front wheel still looks good.
no broken spokes/ dents.
[quote=“thehappyrobot”]radial laced front wheel still looks good.
no broken spokes/ dents.[/quote]
It was 3x before the accident.
well played.
The frame was probably cracked before it broke, hi-res pictures or a thorough examination would tell the whole story. I’d like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt but without better pictures of the area I’d have to assume it wasn’t the first pothole he hit.
lets make shit out of hemp. the first ford model t was made out of hemp.
full hemp bikes
Wow, fuck. Sounds like a manufacturing defect, for sure. I mean, running right into a deep pothole (like the one that it would take to overpower that frame) is stupid, but the frame shouldn’t just fail like that.[/quote]
i agree. Id expect the fork to go out first.