3 ms·
Wow, not a single mention of fatigue limits in the article and in the comments here, I MUST POST. Titanium and steel have a property called a fatigue limit[0],
by thot_experiment 3y ago
Wow, not a single mention of fatigue limits in the article and in the comments here, I MUST POST.
Titanium and steel have a property called a fatigue limit[0], aluminum and carbon do not. There's a stress threshold below which steel and titanium accumulate zero wear, making their cycle life effectively infinite. Every bump Al and CF take puts them on setp closer to failure, and that failure tends to be catastrophic. I will never ride bikes made out of the latter two materials, I need to rely on this machine for my life, I don't want it's cycle life nagging me in the back of my mind.
If you want to save weight, take the brakes and gears off. :P
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_limit
- thefz 3y agoTrue. But carbon MTBs can last a decade of abuse.
- habnds 3y agoyeah this isn't a real concern
- mikae1 3y agoDecade? Is that a merit?
- habnds 3y agoif you haven't destroyed your mtb after 10 years of riding you might not need a mountain bike at all.
- mikae1 3y agoAnd with MTB you mean MTB frameset? I see plenty of hard ridden +10 year old MTB steel frames. I have two myself. In mountainbiking I think the greater threat to longevity is “standards” inflation though. 157mm super boost spacing, here we come.
- thefz 3y agoOldest I've seen is a 15 years old XC hardtail that has been put to sleep only because its owner slammed it into a tree opening a hole in the top tube. No human was hurt, fortunately, rest of the bike was still in great condition. Curious to see the +10 years old full sus steel frames, though.
- thefz 3y agoConsidering how old they age as the technology advances, yes. Nothing stops you from riding one until the wheels fall off though, just like any other bike made with any other material.
- habnds 3y agomy 25 year old aluminum hard tail begs me to share that while this is factually correct, the lifetime for an alloy bike frame isn't a real practical limitation, just a talking point.
- korse 3y agoNO BRAKES, NO GEARS, NO PROBLEMS! This is really the way! Also, it is nice in the winter, because without brakes you can easily cycle in mittens.
- sottol 3y agoAfaik, fatigue limit just doesn't apply to carbon fiber since it's a metallurgic term. So not having a fatigue limit means something completely different than with alumin(i)um. Carbon fiber can take an infinite amount of repeated stress as long as it doesn't exceed the stress limit. Now the resin can deteriorate but that's a much slower process than metal fatigue afaik.
- jackmott42 3y agoThis has no practical impact on actual bicycles though, in practice they all fail, at similar rates.
- thot_experiment 3y agoI've broken 2 Al frames, and my road bike is 19 years older than I am and still perfect. I might just be being irrationally sensitive to it but hey, no hate on any bikes, bikes are the best an I love em all.