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Insightdriver wrote:
What I would love to see is a video on a web site showing someone taking a standard carbon fiber bicycle tube bashing it hard against a telephone pole. I think that would be a convincer because contrary to popular belief, that stuff is tough to break.

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A riding buddy has a little start-up company building CF Mtn bikes. He was out on a ride with one of his early prototypes and set the bike down in the parking lot of a market while he ran in to get some grub and drink. When he came out, he found that his bike had been run over by a car. The driver was apologetic and very sorry. My buddy looked at the bike and except for some cosmetic damage, everything looked ok. He wasn't worried about the little damage since it was mostly old parts and he was just testing the ride. He let the driver go and all was good. ...until he tried to ride off. Apparently, the car bent both crank arms enough that he couldn't make a revolution. Both arms were hitting the chain stays in either direction! ...But the frame was intact and undamaged!

On the other hand, I know a guy who is making CF reinforced aluminum lacrosse sticks. Those break, but not as frequently as the non-reinforced versions. He's an mechanical engineer and uses a crude (and cheap) but repeatable method of testing. He plays "Barry Bonds" with the sticks against another lacrosse stick until one fails. Count the whacks.

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Skuke
95 Carbonframes Tetra Pro
92 Bridgestone MB-1
90 Moser 51.151

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