Carbon Fiber Question

[agentQ]

So if there is a shortage how come road bikes are moving towards all CF parts...frames,seats,seatposts,cranks,so on........? Or is this why there is a shortage? All the damn bikers are using so much that production can't keep up?

Anyone got the knows on this?

[kerosian]

well, I know all the "shortage" has done is put a higher price on CF. I believe it has something to do with the war effort.

[zfreak220]

Originally Posted by kerosian

I believe it has something to do with the war effort.

...and all those kid's supping up their hondas after seeing fast and the furious.

[kerosian]

well yeah, that too. (:

[gerblefranklin]

You are making a foolish deduction. The bike industry is moving towards carbon fiber because cyclists wills hell out the extra cash for cf parts. Increased demand is entirely different from demand exceeding supply.

The increased demand is because of the multiple wars going on. The United States Military uses carbon fiber all over the place--Airplane wing panels, seatframes, truck components, backpack frames, gun components, barrel sights... You get the idea. Name a lightweight part that used to be made from aluminum, and chances are it is being or has been replaced by carbon fiber. The bike industry is an extremely small part of the total demand for carbon fiber in the world. You need to think bigger than that. Cars, airplanes, helicopters, and many, many other parts of industry use enough carbon fiber in one day to make a year's production run for many bike companies.

[agentQ]

Makes sense. Besides cycles and hockey sticks and such Ive never realy seen much CF. Guess my mind tries to stay off the war subject.

Is it recyclable at all?

[agentQ]

Found my answer



This must be why I found such a big price increase weird. Its not just the demand for it, with wars and such. It is that there were some big wigs smart enough to lock in their prices with contracts so the rest of the industry was left to pay, not them.

[john_childs]

I just bought a new (OEM model) WTB bike saddle that has faux carbon fiber weave for the seat cover.

The saddle was in the cheap parts bin because it was taken from a bike where the customer didn't want the stock saddle. I'm all for cheap even if it does have the faux CF weave.

[kington99]

I understood the shortage was due to the A 380, and with delays in production large amounts are backwashing on to the market currently. I believe I heard the A380 will take something like 60% of th entire non-military supply of cf while it is in production.

[Loosemoose]

To answer the OP question, roadbikes are heading towards CF because nutters will pay for it.

Military use has no bearing on the global supply. Its not WW2, they're not stealing all the worlds resources for use in making armaments at short notice. They're probably not making many more items containing CF now than in the past 10 years.

The actual reason is that the Airbus A380, which contains 25% composite materials (by WEIGHT) is taking it all. However, it does mean that the massive ramp-up of CF to compensate will saturate the market after the A380 production slows down, and the prices should crash again.

Loose.

[AscenXion]

Originally Posted by gerblefranklin

You are making a foolish deduction. The bike industry is moving towards carbon fiber because cyclists wills hell out the extra cash for cf parts. Increased demand is entirely different from demand exceeding supply.

The increased demand is because of the multiple wars going on. The United States Military uses carbon fiber all over the place--Airplane wing panels, seatframes, truck components, backpack frames, gun components, barrel sights... You get the idea. Name a lightweight part that used to be made from aluminum, and chances are it is being or has been replaced by carbon fiber. The bike industry is an extremely small part of the total demand for carbon fiber in the world. You need to think bigger than that. Cars, airplanes, helicopters, and many, many other parts of industry use enough carbon fiber in one day to make a year's production run for many bike companies.

Ahh...just another in a long set of reasons to be mad as Bushy.

...
Just read the rest of the posts about the Airbus...well...at least we still have more than enough reasons to be mad at him

[markf]

bikes are moving towards it because it's a better ride/ lower vibration, stiffer, more easily made into all sorts of crazy shapes so the material is no longer an engineering constraint. plus cyclists are willing ot pay for it, even insane things like scott's full carbon mtn bike. even with carbon drop outs. crazy. but serioulsy cf rides great.

[johnfoss]

Originally Posted by Loosemoose

...after the A380 production slows down, and the prices should crash again.

...or not. Now Boeing is building prototype or early production versions of their new 787, which also uses a very high amount of CF throughout. Lots of manual labor is being replaced by huge machines that can wind the carbon while a section of the airframe is rotated around. I don't know what percentage of the plane will use it, but I'm sure once production gets going (they haven't flown the first one yet) that'll be another big drain on the supply...