dogman dan said:
It would be fun though, to build the strongest carbon frame in the world so far. Definitely do it if its mostly for the fun.
It all depends on your definition of "Strong." Do you mean strong like concrete?
I always love seeing what some of the instant experts have to say about things I've studied in school and worked with, such as carbon fiber. Nothing happens when the carbon fiber bikes fall over? They don't delaminate inside? The don't suffer long term structural degradation? They don't break first along the bonding of the separate tubing? Let's not forget the coming apart at 40mph part. Imagine how I feel sitting here with the awards I won and remembering the one guest speaker who fixed those carbon fiber frames for a living and made the point HE would never own one. But he highly recommended getting into patching them, more business out there than people to do it.
If you want to make a carbon fiber frame you'll break the normal rules for making a strong composite structure. Rather than getting your matrix under 40%, you'll push it over. Along with using one or more plys of fiberglas on top. This is to protect the finish and the carbon fiber itself. But a resin rich composite also breaks easier. Darn.
And with having read so many stupid comments on bike forums way back when, let me point out that no, it is NOT safe to let the Dreamliner or the F-22 "Fall over." If one did "Fall over," it would be immediately grounded and inspected, I would expect considerable damage would be done. So much for proving carbon fiber doesn't break when it falls over by mentioning aircraft. I"m not making this up, people spout this nonsense on bike boards, probably to this day. If someone held up a carbon fiber panel for an airplane you could throw things at it that would punch a hole that would not go through the steel panel that carbon fiber replaced in the process. Even if the carbon fiber is overall stronger. Oh, I'm sure you don't believe that, any more than you believe that you could stand on an aluminum can and then just touch one side and have it collapse. Oh, how the instant experts must be scoffing at that one. But think of how the bullets that would penetrate the carbon fiber and the steel panel would be stopped by the concrete. I guess we can figure out the best thing to make a bike out of, eh? (Wouldn't that be a kewl thing to be riding around on at the beach?)
Oh, more that I'm sure will get the instant experts hackles up. So you think chrome moly is far better than mild steel, eh? Do you know which holds up better over time? Which takes longer to become brittle under vibration? Which one takes a second impact, say after bouncing off the wall a racecar is then hit by another car, and takes that second impact BETTER? But you just feel so sure that chrome moly is better because you've heard talk, eh?
I'll let the instant experts insist on the right answer to this: Two round steel tubes, made of the same metal. (1020, whatever.) They are the same length and the same weight, but one has a thinner wall. Which is stronger?