In the meantime, this material has arrived safely in the bike sector. Sceptics are a minority and manufacturers got rid of the biggest manufacturing worries. Instead of teething problems it is now rather problems of every day life which arise with the material. Dealers have largely good experience with current products, although demands are high when handling the sensitive material.
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Bike expert Dirk Zedler points out that not permanent load is a problem, but overload: When crashing or when the bike just falls over, neither customer nor dealer can usually tell for sure if the component has to be replaced.
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Dirk Zedler also knows what the situation is like with cheap products: "Cheaper products are not bound to break. Often, just more material is used and less engineering achievement is taken advantage of for the product." Currently, the fascination of carbon is unbroken according to Zedler: "Nothing teases more than the fibre", what seduces many customers to upgrade their bikes.
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Particularly carbon wheels regularly are a part of Zedlers work as a bike expert. "Wrecked, melted carbon rims" are no exception as the material does not conduct heat away very well. The material characteristics leads to a break performance you have to get used to, not to say it is "considerably worse". In contrast to this, manufacturers meanwhile have a better handle on problems with carbon forks and fork steering columns. Also seat posts hardly ever fail. "Manufacturers and dealers have learned a lot", he says. But still: "Carbon products are sensitive", and particularly customers often lack the sense for handling them.
Author: dh
