Timely given recent crashes and as I contemplate my deer-bashed bike and whether to ride it again or invest in a new (non-CF) steed. While other materials usually provide some advance warning of impending failure CF is super-strong right up to the moment it snaps like a potato chip...
As Technology Makes Bicycles Lighter and Faster, It’s the Cyclists Falling Harder
“Anyone in a team who’s being honest with you will tell you how frequently their bikes are breaking; everybody knows,” said Mark Greve, a physician and assistant professor of sports medicine at Brown University who studied injuries to 3,500 competitive cyclists. “Few people in the public appreciate how many bikes a pro team will go through in a season, because they break for one reason or another. The bikes, they completely explode.”
A good article that didn't even mention the apex of bike frame materials, titanium.
So I'll revise the poem I wrote after "Bollard Al" (not to be confused with 'Racoon Al') crashed his carbon steed. I hope Chris navigates his way to the toughest of metals
A Toast to Strong Bikes
It’s true they say, he’s grown quite snobby,
eschewing carbon, his latest hobby.
Galloping free on his titanium steed,
disguising disdain for that carbon breed.
You gotta admit carbon’s light and svelte,
but only one deer away from a fiery melt?
And my carbon footprint is now Lilliputian,
since downing a double of that Litespeed potion.
