Good sources of information on carbon fiber

[Mark Davison]

My working hypothesis is that a well designed and built CFRP fork will be suitable, given the right maintenance and inspection schedule.


Metal forks for this application get quite heavy.

Since I teach bicycle safety I realize that fork/frame failure is only one of many serious risks you take bicycling.

My attitude--inform yourself of the risks, find out how to mitigate them, make it a habit so you don't have to think about it. Enjoy yourself.

Right now in Seattle we are going through some weird phase of post pandemic careless driving. I tell people that to drive your bike defensively, you need to assume that any driver you encounter might be ADDD: Angry, Distracted, Drunk or Drugged; or any combination of the four.

Most drivers are not, but there are enough ADDD drivers that the collision and fatality rates in the city are going up.

There was a New York Times Magazine article on this recently that indicated that the problem is widespread across the country.

[weisan]

I also think that Mark pal is "over-thinking" it but I love the fact that his question or thread draws out old pals like Mike Lopez and Hampco etc.

[fellowpicker]

I used to enjoy riding my bike.

[AngryScientist]

Mark, if you are going to have Brad B build you a bike, you should ask him for his thoughts on CF forks. Certainly he has been in and around the bike industry for a very long time and has a sterling reputation by all accounts. He seems to have no problem outfitting his frames with CF forks, maybe he can convince you they are a safe option for your use case.

P.S.

Nothing wrong with metal adventure forks

[Likes2ridefar]

Teaching safety to people and telling them their is a risk their bike or fork might snap in half seems wrong to me. There is always risk but I don’t think this is a reasonable risk to spook people with given it so rarely happens.

[martl]

Originally Posted by Mark Davison

Yes, I realize that CFRP is used to make many things, including submersibles that implode, seat posts that fail completely, leaving sharp jagged ends, steer tubes that crack when stem clamps are overtightened, handlebars that crack after impact loads that aluminum bars would have survived.

I'm looking for background information to allow me to make my own judgements about how suitable CFRP components are for my own bicycling activities and maintenance routines, independent of marketing claims.

Well, that'S the problem. One can be a master metallurgist who dreams of


every night and still be very clueless about the properties of a given steel lugged frame or alloy stem; that is because we all as end customers lack a lot of detail information necessary to make an educated guess above what is common knowledge. specifics about the manufacturing process, the details of the bonding method... the load situation, etc etc and the same is true about CF...

You can learn from metallurgy, for example, where steel has its strengths and weaknesses, and where those are for a certain aluminum alloy - that does not allow you yet to judge whether a device made from Aluminum or Steel is better or less suited for the job at hand.

[charliedid]

What's a CFRP?

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by charliedid

What's a CFRP?

"Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer" or as everyone in the bike industry just calls it, "carbon fiber."

[StressStrain]

OP, it sounds like you are asking the Paceline - who, let's be honest, is a bunch of random bike riders - about how to become smarter than engineers who design composite bike parts.

That's a weird ask.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by prototoast

"Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer" or as everyone in the bike industry just calls it, "carbon fiber."

Thank You

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by hampco

I’d say that a) Enve has built thousands of forks over the years and they don’t seem to fail, and b) I have sold hundreds of them over the years and have never had an issue. And heck, you could pick up the phone and have a chat with someone there - I think I’d start with Fred Mackay at 801-476-3363 and ask him some questions.

this!!!

As others also said, Enve is ,probably, the top carbon fork manufacture and has sold so, so many forks that seem to have not failed.. in this day and age of internet and folks going on to lambaste a manufacturer about the slightest issue, I'm 1000% certain we would know if there were issues with Enve forks or Diverge top tubes clamped in racks.. this all is a bit too "tin foil hat" I think..

on the rack issue, why not just get a rear rack that clamps on the wheels and never touches the frame? I mean, hope you don't have carbon wheels, but should be fine otherwise.. (sarcasm re: carbon wheels, in case there was any question)

[bigbill]

Originally Posted by StressStrain

OP, it sounds like you are asking the Paceline - who, let's be honest, is a bunch of random bike riders - about how to become smarter than engineers who design composite bike parts.

That's a weird ask.

I think you'd be surprised at the depth of knowledge on this forum. I assume you've read the previous comments from major players in the bike building and carbon fiber world.

[StressStrain]

Originally Posted by bigbill

I think you'd be surprised at the depth of knowledge on this forum. I assume you've read the previous comments from major players in the bike building and carbon fiber world.

Yeah, good point about PL expertise.

I guess I'm just a bit weirded out by the OP's question. Sounds like he's a layman trying to outthink subject matter experts.

[KonaSS]

Originally Posted by StressStrain

Y Sounds like he's a layman trying to outthink subject matter experts.

Exactly this. I think it would be fair to ask if anyone has had any issues or concerns with their Enve fork. But it isn't like the OP is going to find some secret internet portal and learn that Enve engineering is all a sham and their forks randomly explode (as carbon fiber does all the time ).

For goodness sakes, willing to trust a builder based on reputation, why is Enve held to a different standard? If anything, there are a lot more Enve forks out in the world being tested compared to the number of Bingham bikes.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by StressStrain

Sounds like he's a layman trying to outthink subject matter experts.

sounds to me like someone who has drank way too much of the Grant Peterson Kool-Aid when it comes to carbon.. I love me a Riv as much as the next curmudgeon (at least most of them, the super long, low TT ones are just weird), but Grant gets a bit (a lot) too bombastic when it comes to carbon IMHO..

when it comes to the durability of carbon, I will always refer to how many of the first generation Ibis carbon Mojos are still bombing around on trails today.. that speaks tons to me.. I LOVE me a steel or Ti bike, but have no concerns on riding or hauling either of my carbon bikes (or the carbon forks on all but two of my bikes)..