Carbon Fiber Mountain Bike Frame Vs Aluminum

The typical aluminum frame possesses a life expectancy of five to 10 years.

Carbon fiber mountain bike frame vs aluminum.

These are kind of a novelty at this point. When you re riding a carbon fiber frame that has been designed with this in mind you can add a tremendous amount of power to your ride by transferring this energy to the back wheel. In truth if we tested the strength of the same frame built from carbon and aluminum you would see that carbon fiber frames are much stronger per pound in terms of both stress tests and impact tests. Uv damage is essentially non existent to reputable brand s carbon frames.

Most bamboo bikes are made by starting with strong bamboo poles then binding the joints together with fiber and resin. The fatigue life of the aluminum handlebar was reduced due to surface damage but the carbon bar was not affected. The vast majority of modern bikes however will be made from aluminum or carbon fiber. Conversely carbon possesses the longest fatigue life.

Luckily damage to carbon frames can usually be repaired whereas re welding or patching a cracked aluminum frame is not safe. That said we still recommend replacing any carbon or aluminum product that has been damaged. These joints are similar to carbon fiber. One of the most discussed aspects of carbon fiber frames is the weight savings over aluminum frames.

Most manufacturers provide a lifetime warranty on carbon frames. It s lighter and stiffer than steel but it s also more brittle and easily damaged. For more info check out my carbon fiber vs aluminum frame guide. There are two main frame materials you will encounter when deciding to buy a mountain bike carbon and aluminium.

We fatigue tested aluminum and carbon bars with very similar surface damage. Even then current carbon fiber is very strong and a large impact force would have to be sustained enough to badly dent an aluminum frame. Let s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each material. Aluminum frames possess the shortest fatigue life of any material used to manufacture bicycle frames.

Some manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty on. Most of the bikes ridden at world cup enduro world series level will be carbon although it isn t ubiquitous but it would be simplistic and maybe even wrong to say that carbon is objectively better. Of the lead materials used for bike frames ranging from aluminum to titanium and even carbon fiber chromoly offers the best cost benefit ratio. Having said that bamboo is a legitimate bike frame material.

Carbon fiber doesn t exhibit this type of crack propagation.