Carbon retro?

[Rapparee87]

Amateur Googling reveals that carbon fibre frames will degrade over time, much quicker than steel frames it seems, so after us steel men are gone retro will pass too!

 

[Canuk]

Amateur Googling reveals that carbon fibre frames will degrade over time, much quicker than steel frames it seems, so after us steel men are gone retro will pass too!

I dunno, I've got a Vitus 7 tube carbon from 1985, so that makes it 40 years old today. Whatever I do to it, riding gravel, pothole cities, numerous offs, a head on collision, it just will not die.

And it still looks good too. AFAIK carbon should last indefinitely, if treated properly and no overly abused. Most of my steel frames I bought in the eighties are in the scrapper....

The Dawes Galaxy. Don't mention the Galaxy

 

[Canuk]

Steel frames lose their 'zing', ie their stiffness very quickly, after not much abuse. Eddy Merckx changed his frames every six weeks because they had 'lost their fight', nothing, no material I suppose lasts forever.

 

[Jonny69]

Carbon shouldn’t degrade with time. Resins degrade in UV, however, so anything in bare carbon shouldn’t be left in the sunlight

 

[non-fixie]

Steel frames lose their 'zing', ie their stiffness very quickly, after not much abuse. Eddy Merckx changed his frames every six weeks because they had 'lost their fight', nothing, no material I suppose lasts forever.

Six weeks? Perhaps that says more about Merkcx than about the steel frames.

Jan le Grand, who was responsible for the bikes of Peter Post's rather successful TI Raleigh team, said in an interview about the team bikes he had built:

"After a year they get new bikes because they're full of scratches and dents, not because they've lost their stiffness. I have occasionally resprayed a frame, which was then used for another year. Never heard anything about it. Knetemann rode the bike he used to win the World Championship for a total of three years."

 

[ChromeChainstay]

Six weeks? Perhaps that says more about Merkcx than about the steel frames.

Jan le Grand, who was responsible for the bikes of Peter Post's rather successful TI Raleigh team, said in an interview about the team bikes he had built:

sounds like a sales ploy. and picture below. just sayin'. people replace bent tubes on bicycles all day long

 

[grantoury]

According to my local builder, who wrote an excellent book on touring bicycles, material properties do not change in use, so a steel or aluminium bike frame will not lose stiffness with age, or it should be that the steel tubes are rusted. What is however possible is the frame feeling less stiff due to familiarisation.

 

[grantoury]

A new custom frame built every six weeks will have affected Merckx's profit margin... Or that of his team. Sounds like a tall tale.

 

[bikeworkshop]

a dentist only needs a new d-a di2 carbon spesh once a year!
Or every 500 miles

I've seen plenty of broken carbon, almost always impact.

Properly made and kept, it could last for ever - cheaper resins will degrade though, and high end bikes are delicate.

Most carbon frames have aluminium alloy inserts here and there - this bond is unlikely to last for ever, although it could last a very long time.

I think the only thing that properly destroys carbon is...
FIRE

 

[bikeworkshop]

A new custom frame built every six weeks will have affected Merckx's profit margin... Or that of his team. Sounds like a tall tale.

To be fair to eddy and his builders though, if you were to work at the very limit of steel's capabilities, you could make a super lightweight frame where fatigue would be a (shorter-term) problem, so a design life of only a few thousand miles hard riding.

A lot of well- used high end steel 60s frames are broken now, whereas the cheaper stuff can last forever if kept rust free.