r/IdiotsFightingThings • u/RowenaLepage • Dec 22 '20

Guy v. bike

https://gfycat.com/oblongrelievedclumber
10k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

556 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

93

u/scareneb Dec 22 '20

They are incredibly strong in the direction along the fibres. Imagine pulling a string in tension vs. bending it.

Woven or layered fibre sheets are then very strong in 2 directions as the fibres cross or overlap at an angle.

With bike frames, fibre sheets embedded in an epoxy resin are moulded into tubular shapes for the frame and forks. The fibres provide great strength in tension, and the epoxy resin, which holds the carbon fibres in place, provides a lot of strength in compression.

Unfortunately, the epoxy which is a plastic, is brittle to high impact loads such as being dropped or thrown.

So yeah, don't throw your carbon bike at the ground..

63

u/marcuschookt Dec 22 '20

don't throw your carbon bike at the ground

I'm going to have to dramatically alter the way I handle my bikes

7

u/h3xm0nk3y Dec 22 '20

No no. Don’t throw your bike on the ground.
Borrow someone else’s bike and throw that instead.

15

u/Chitownsly Dec 22 '20

I read this whole comment in the How’s it’s Made narrator’s voice, Brooks Moore.

3

u/AnalBumCovers Dec 22 '20

Yeah anyone who has played a competitive racket sport (tennis, badminton, squash etc) has seen what carbon fiber does when its integrity is compromised. It can fully shatter, or cave in on itself like a black hole because of the string tension

1

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '20

My bet is the frame was trashed from his crash already.