i was at my ciropractor today and he had a bike magazine in there for like road racing bikes and most of them are made from carbon fiber i guess now the prices there selling for are nuts the cheapest frame in there was like 5000 and the average price for a frame was around 8-10,0000 i thought they were pretty cool and other people might be intrested to see them here a few pics i found on the net but there was real cool pics in the mag




some of you that work with carbon fiber should look in the making things like this i wonder how much theyd charge for handlebars like this probably wouldnt be hard to make

 

i wonder how much one of those frames weigh...

 

^ Those parts arent a walk in the park you need the right equipment and alot of patients.

 

one of the bike complete wieghed something like 9 pounds or somethin they sell carbon fiber tubing i dont see how it would be that hard to make if you have exp. with cf

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ilsimsli &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">one of the bike complete wieghed something like 9 pounds or somethin they sell carbon fiber tubing i dont see how it would be that hard to make if you have exp. with cf</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just because they make carbon tubing doesnt mean its the same stuff on those bikes. I doubt any of that stuff is room temp cure.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by delspool &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i wonder how much one of those frames weigh...</TD></TR></TABLE>
I just sold my carbon fiber road bike actually, the frames typically weigh a few pounds (about 3-5lbs) and handle amazingly well. The handlebars you showed however are for mountain bikes, and have tendencies to get a scratch in them and snap.../

 

they make carbon fiber tubing in all sizes and thicknesess i dont see it being that hard to do i dont see it being worth 5- 10,000 a frame i might have to get in to making these lol these people are making a killing

 

You're going to need an autoclave. These are not wet layup parts being made with vacuum bags in somebody's garage or backyard shop. The equipment and molds to make those shapes for their production volumes is why the bikes are so expensive.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ilsimsli &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">they make carbon fiber tubing in all sizes and thicknesess i dont see it being that hard to do i dont see it being worth 5- 10,000 a frame i might have to get in to making these lol these people are making a killing</TD></TR></TABLE>

How do you plan to fuze the pieces or tubing together? You cannot weld them, sure you can get parts machined for the tubing to fit into but then how to you fix them to the machined pieces rivets, lol? Thats not even touching on the information that these bicycle manufacturers have about bicycle geometry

It can be done but it is not going to be "easy money"

There is a ton of R/D into these bikes. Sure they make money they are a business but there is alot more to them than you think.

These bikes are also targeted at high end buyers where money is often not an issue, its about exclusivity.

 

im not saying im gonna make one i dont even ride a bike and have never rode a road race bike lol i just thought it was an intresting thing i saw

 

Isn't there still a world-wide shortage of carbon fiber? Everyone and their momma is using CF in everything!

 

They had a whole bike made out of that at a local bike shop. WHeels frame and bars were cf, and everything else was titanium and rubber. That bike was so light. It cost more than my car!

 

thier is a lot of factors that make those expensive, materials--they use way different thermoset resins which are more money, all the bagging supplies and you need an autoclave to cure (average price $500,000) for a good large one, and mostly the knowledge to make it. Those are composites engineers that make those parts average wage is about $35 an hour and those probally have about 6-8 man hours in them

 

meh id break break that **** in one session

 

I sell bicycle specific tubing, both filament wound and roll wrapped prepreg and none of it is cured in an autoclave. If you are building a frame that is one piece and varies in diameter yes that might be autoclave cured. There are more ways than one to apply pressure to a part, autoclave is just one way and an expensive way at that. Straight tubing is built by taking a steel or aluminum tube which has to be ground to tolerance and laying prepreg carbon around it at the angle you desire. Then the layers are wrapped in cellophane tape at a determined tension and cured in an oven. When the mandrel steel or al heats up it expands slightly and then the cello tape contracts with heat giving very nice compaction, as good as clave. Then you slide the tube off and use it.


You could buy the tubing to build a base frame sans fork for not much money. All of the tubing would be bonded into ferrules either AL or Ti. Ti is best because it has a CTE close to that of carbon/epoxy. Aluminum has worked if done correctly. Hysol 9430 by Loctite is a good choice for bonding as long as you can maintain a correct bond gap. Also using glass microspheres mixed in the epoxy helps maintain the gap. Fishing line or gauged wire works as well. You don't want the metal and carbon to touch due to corrosion problems. You can also wrap the metal Lug with fiberglass scrim to keep them apart.

If anyone wants to try it check out our site at http://www.carbonfibertubeshop.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crx12 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I sell bicycle specific tubing, both filament wound and roll wrapped prepreg and none of it is cured in an autoclave. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats what I was referring to. I believe the Trek road bikes are like this.

 

Cant say you'd sell a bunch of those bars, generally if someone is going to buy handlebars, a part that if it breaks will generally cause some serious pain, they normally buy from a trusted company......

 

wonder if anybody would make cf motorcycle frames. haha

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Turbo240 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cant say you'd sell a bunch of those bars, generally if someone is going to buy handlebars, a part that if it breaks will generally cause some serious pain, they normally buy from a trusted company......</TD></TR></TABLE>

I highly doubt anyone who has a need for carbon fiber handle bars would end up breaking them. These things are for road cyclists and cross-country mountain bike racers, not downhillers/freeriders that huck themselves off whatever they can find.

 

^ heck i'm just a weekend warrior that upgrades for fun and there is no way i'd trust it.

 

I race road bikes also for fun.....a friend of mine has a carbon fiber bike with all titanium (sp) clogs and what not. His bike wieghs in with rims tires and everything at 12.5 lbs...... thing is nuts on how light it is...... and you cant break these things as easy as you think

 

it's possible to get a full cf frame for WELL less than 5 or 8000.

Here's 2 complete bikes one for $5000 and the other for $10,000 http://www.cervelo.com/bikes.aspx?bike=SLC2006 http://www2.trekbikes.com/bike...0&f=1

 

You think carbon frames & bars are nuts ?
Try carbon fiber bicycle wheels which are designed to be raced on....
Or carbon crank sets... Hell they make carbon brakes..

 

i have some carbon fiber condoms..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 9295EJ-t &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i have some carbon fiber condoms.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Why does this comment have to come up in 99% of the carbon fiber product threads I see. Everybody always has to talk about the "crazy" things they have or should make with cf. Next will pop up that stupid picture of the cf toilet I always see. Somehow I never see this in threads about fabbing in metal. Composites are just another material to build stuff with. Nothing personal this just bugs me.