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Carbon Fiber and age????

2K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  Ithnu 
#1 ·
I have a question about Carbon Fiber bars and age.
I a 2000 GT XCR-LE it's a cross country bike but my question is generally about the carbon fiber bars.....

I have not rode this bike in 6 years(since I built my Kona Stinky)
but lately I've been thinking about putting on a shorter stem,some lights,and making a night ride bike out of it..

My concern is this..The bike came with Easton Monkeylite Carbon Fiber bars
and they are now going on 9 years old..Does anyone know if the structual integrity of carbon fiber changes over time????
I just keep thinking they will get old and brittle and break on me but I have no real reason to think this way.....
 
#2 ·
Age in years won't have a thing to do with it. The longevity of all composites is shortened typically because cracks are harder to detect and constant use increases the chances of undetected cracks forming. Since composites don't have a yield, they'll always have a brittle failure. Which is why old bars that don't have any visible damage may suddenly snap.

If they've been sitting on a shelf the whole time don't worry about it.




Oh...and my 0.02...I would never use carbon bars on anything gravity related:thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
Had and rode carbon bars on my 4x and dh bikes for a long time, always used a torque wrench! Had a brand new pair fail on me first run sprinting down a fire road, hit the ground so fast my bike ran over me....never will I run them again, maybe on the road bike...
 
#15 ·
SHIVER ME TIMBERS said:
that about sums it up for me......I also prescibe to the theory better safe then sorry.....for 30 bucks or so I would replace the bars
You should be banned from every thread about carbon fiber, single pivots, and basically everything that isn't Marzocchi, Intense, FSR, or Azonic.... ;)
 
#13 ·
I'll step in one this one. Carbon fiber has a variable shelf life. It can boil down to even what color it is. UV is a really does the material in. If it is painted white it will last for decades. Left in the raw form it will degrade quickly. Which for coolness factor the bike industry does quite a bit. The second biggest killer of C/F is impact. A rock impact or ding will render C/F almost useless. It will come apart in a half heartbeat after the layup has been degraded. In a nut shell I feel that C/F is a bad material for what we are doing with it in the bike industry. Don't get me wrong it is good for road stuff, but for MTB it's just a bad idea. What do I know though I only build airplanes out of the stuff.
 
#16 ·
I just read a review about the new GT Fury, all CF DH bike. They say they can hit it with a ball peen hammer and have no damage. I've seen a carbon I-beam at work (I'm in aerospace) that can stand up to a hammer. I don't think GT is contracting out to aerospace companies for CF (really really really expensive!).

Anyone else seen these in person?

I have to say, CF has potential, but I'd only ride one if Lockheed Martin or Boeing made it:D
 
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