Flooding and landslides in Taylorsville yesterday yet not a drop of rain made it's way over to my house or up to Siltitude. The race was pretty much the same as always last night. My legs felt great but I was too lazy to clean and lube my bike after riding in the rain on Sunday so I had a few shifting issues causing me to screw up certain sections of the course. My time was good but not great and I beat the guys I usually battle with but the four guys who finished ahead of me are just too fast. They're gone from the start. I moved up to 4th in the GC and the organizers are talking about maybe paying 4-5 deep in the bigger categories so all hope is not lost to make a little cash out of the deal.
Check out Bonti's new 29er carbon wheelset due out in '09. 1570 grams (almost 200g lighter than crossmax 29) , tubeless ready and a 3 year warranty makes this a bad ass wheelset. With the white spokes they're made to match the G.F. Superfly's paint scheme so I know what is going to be on top of 
every Superfly owners x-mas list this year.
every Superfly owners x-mas list this year.
4 comments:
Might be good for the serious racer swimming in $$$. Rocks and carbon don't mix so well. In fact, for mountain bikes I favor no carbon. I've seen too many broken carbon seatposts and handlebars. In metal I trust.
AL is guranteed to fail. Some time, somewhere, probably catastrophically.
If you follw the seat post/ handlebar rules of, replace it when dinged or crashed, you should be ok.
Plus modern carbon is put together much better.
Everything will break, given the right conditions, But AL has a guaranteed failure.
FUnny thing about most carbon parts, they are no lighter and sometimes heavier than their aluminum siblings.
Mostly Bling. The Thomas AL seatpost is lighter than any carbon MTB seatpost I have seen.
I've never had any problems with my carbon bits while I've broken two aluminum frames and multiple aluminum parts. I think carbon failures get more press b/c people expect it to fail. The thing that intrigues me about carbon wheels is the lateral stiffness factor. Of course I'll never be able to afford them but one can dream.
"Aluminum is guaranteed to fail"? The same could be said of any material. Are you saying carbon fiber composite will outlast aircraft aluminum? Show me the data. Plenty of old aluminum airplanes flying around.
I contend that the expected life span of an aluminum frame is long enough. And when aluminum fails it often gives some warning (a crack or creaking noise), but carbon requires careful visual inspection and even then it can fail unexpectedly. Not 100% with either, but I like the aluminum odds better.
Carbon is not strong in compression. Seat tubes and handlebars need to be carefully torqued or the composite gets crushed and weakened dramatically. Not very robust and dicey for field adjustment.
I've personally seen 3 sheared off carbon seat tubes and 2 handlebars. From my observation there have been many more carbon failures than aluminum.
A agree that carbon is largely a bling factor. It has it's place. But remember that companies will offer anything that will sell, regardless if it's really any better or not. Caveat emptor.
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