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Some old school BMX friends of mine have got caught up in a "disagreement" over the introduction of Carbon BMX race frames and one of them was linked to this, beware there are some grim pictures if you're pro-carbon !

Busted Carbon

Ouch, although a lot of them are pretty unavoidable "i hit a car doing 35" lol

Hmm most of them are roadie bikes though so probably even thinner than MTB/BMX carbon? Kudos to the guy at the bottom who's bar snapped and he still won!

Funny how 2 of the snapped seatposts are a layback with the saddle adjusted as far back as possible
where they trying to break them?

As Eccles said, all roadies apart from one!
all pretty simular fails too.

It doesnt surprise me at all!

I work with metals and I used to do heat treating, the more carbon in a material the more brittle and hard it is , hardened steel is simply steel treated with more carbon then mild steel, and then when heat treated further, hardens the metal even further, good for making tools with, but unbelievably brittle.

Aluminium being soft as playdo is also the reason its so durable, your always gonna compromise strength and weight with durability!
I think Id even want my road bike to be mostly if not all aluminium, Id rather have faith in the strength of the bike then having that tiny bit less weight.

I'm so pleased I didn't buy those carbon bars I was looking at, my riding style would lead to an unavoidable failure.

Carbon is very strong if used in the correct mannor, IE in tubes for bikes etc,
it is weak if being forced in the wrong directions to what it has been designed for, like those road frames and hitting cars.
thats the odd thing about the MTB bars, never seen any go like that before?

Thats why i'm dubious about buying some to the top name branded carbon stuff of eaby from Asia, some of it seems to cheap to be true.

Talking of carbon,

This looks nice > http://dirt.mpora.com/news/fresh-produc ... vices.html although the top bits look a bit skinny n snapable, not bad price either, its about the same as the MRP alumium version.

Actually looking at their website perhaps this version is the one to go for > http://www.csixx.com/chainguide_110.html#ad-image-0

Andy

On mtbr someone is selling my full suss carbon frame and shock for £450 grab it while you can!!

Before it snaps

Some of those pics are pretty scary!

Been looking at getting a new full sus bike! thinking that i will be giving carbon a miss now!

Don't, carbon is the future.

My two go everywhere and do everything