Skinny pipe, steel frame riding retro grouches can feel some measure of satisfaction and vindication in this article about "carbon" - i.e. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic frames and components!
I've been beating this drum for for over 40 years! First got involved with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy products in the 1970s!
Chas.
SF Bay Area, CA USA
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1984 Criterium
1969 TdF
1971 TdF
1974 TdF
1984 TdF x 2 Bikes
1970 SC
1971 SC
1972 SC
1984 SC
1984 Team Pro
1985 Professional
1990s Team Replica
Interesting article. I never thought carbon bikes made sense for most people, and one hears about forks failing with sometimes fatal results, but I figured teams with factory sponsorship would replace frames or forks that had been in a crash and might fail. They seem to be saying that today's stupid light frames can't last even as long as a professional team expects and are contributing to injuries. I know injuries are nothing new, but there seemed to be a lot of fairly serious ones in the TDF. Maybe they should follow Japanese track racing, where all the parts have to meet approval and I think they still require lugged steel frames. Bike manufacturers sponsor teams to sell their latest greatest bikes, but all the kids that ride fixies want the Japanese steel frames and approved parts.
