steerer tube fatigue and fatality

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Marin
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Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:48 am
Location: Vienna Austria

by Marin

I think that generally with carbon we have a much safer material than with steel or aluminum, mainly because the lighter weight allows for more room for adding material and because the fatigue behavior is so much better than with metal.

The most problematic areas seem to be metal/carbon interfaces like dropouts, BB shells and - fork steerers. A good reason to go for a full carbon fork IMO.

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kgt
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Location: Athens, Greece

by kgt

That's true but in any case that the lowest weight is not the main priority steel remains the safest, most reliable frame material.

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wingguy
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Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:43 pm

by wingguy

joec wrote:this isnt about how often its happened, its about how often it may happen. as already discussed a perfectly aid up fork will have a basicly infinet fatigue life,

That isn't exactly what was discussed, and there's no such thing as a perfectly laid up fork anyway.

dont get me wrong, carbons great, but a bit of thought about its application is warrented, if a frame lets go, then generally its not going to be a big issue, but a fork, well that a different matter.

You remember that this thread started because a metal fork steerer let go, not a carbon one, right?

joec
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:20 pm

by joec

Yep, but I think a lot of forks are furthur from perfectly laid up that th manufacturer would have us belive,

Yep your right this is getting off topic now, carbon steerers should be pretty good due to being a simple tube, as should handle bars, really my concern is more the crown area where it is hard to mould correctly. but I'll stop now.

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