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I'm afraid that despite the marketing, Jez is correct.
Many of the Trimbles were glass wrapped balloon mold frames. It was not until the last two years of production that they actually incorporated a top layer of Carbon fabric.
Kinda like all the carbon wonder components and frames coming out of China as of late...lots of illusion, little actual carbon. :?
cheers,
rody
Many of the Trimbles were glass wrapped balloon mold frames. It was not until the last two years of production that they actually incorporated a top layer of Carbon fabric.
Kinda like all the carbon wonder components and frames coming out of China as of late...lots of illusion, little actual carbon. :?
cheers,
rody
Wold Ranger
Old School Grand Master
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Carbon
The term Carbon Fibre, covers a multitude of sins and a lot of it is glass composite mix, In another life, I taught fly fishing and used to and still do a bit, deal in high end gear(makes mtb's look small change) True Carbon Fibre should in fact be Graphite. A lot of the "Carbon" bikes have poor quality cloth used and heavy resin incorporated too. The weight of a lot of it is the give away, it's just too heavy. Many of the top Composite developers are based in the US, with Fishing rod manufacturers leading the way. Some of these are now incorporating Titanium strands and foils along with other exotic materials within the cloths weave to increase impact strength and durability. The best blanks have an unlimited lifetime guarentee, they will replace regardless of the reason for breakage or length of time. Budgets for some of these companies run into billions$ mind you and the best US rod company shares Graphite development technicians with NASA. Pity Cycle manufacturers don't go to the same lengths! A bike frame made from some of this material would be weogh around 200 grams, b pretty much indestrucatable, but cost around £10,000
The term Carbon Fibre, covers a multitude of sins and a lot of it is glass composite mix, In another life, I taught fly fishing and used to and still do a bit, deal in high end gear(makes mtb's look small change) True Carbon Fibre should in fact be Graphite. A lot of the "Carbon" bikes have poor quality cloth used and heavy resin incorporated too. The weight of a lot of it is the give away, it's just too heavy. Many of the top Composite developers are based in the US, with Fishing rod manufacturers leading the way. Some of these are now incorporating Titanium strands and foils along with other exotic materials within the cloths weave to increase impact strength and durability. The best blanks have an unlimited lifetime guarentee, they will replace regardless of the reason for breakage or length of time. Budgets for some of these companies run into billions$ mind you and the best US rod company shares Graphite development technicians with NASA. Pity Cycle manufacturers don't go to the same lengths! A bike frame made from some of this material would be weogh around 200 grams, b pretty much indestrucatable, but cost around £10,000
IbocProSX":11o0i1za said:
Well the main 'down tube' is hollow. The chain stays are hollow & so on. But were the parts join then very very solid. What he must have been doing to do that :shock: Or may be he was very over weight. I bet Brent didn't give him a new frame :x
Such is life.
The later frame were made from pure carbon weave with clear coat finish
And weighed 3lb But risk injury to ride unless you weigh 8 stone. As yet i've not seen any one riding a new frame except one of the Trimble brothers. I think thats NOS.
jez-4-bikes-max
Kona Fan
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The frame is infact frame filled.
Mu current one has foam in it and also my others did too. The hollow downtube has a little bit of foam in it but is predominantly hollow.
Mu current one has foam in it and also my others did too. The hollow downtube has a little bit of foam in it but is predominantly hollow.
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Yeah mine had a few bits of 'foam' in it too though mainly hollow
Here's a naked picture
and roo bars
Deffo needs the paint :!:
Here's a naked picture
and roo bars
Deffo needs the paint :!:
the foam core is what they use as a mold,they just wrap the fibreglass around it,some is dissolved out at the end so you can fit forks and a seatpost.they are fibreglass and as said,the 'carbon' ones are 90% glass fibre with a cosmetic layer of carbon cloth layed on top.
jez-4-bikes-max
Kona Fan
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All a bit of a rip off really eh?
probabely about £50 of materials in a frame but obviously you pay for labour and development of the molds.
jez-2-many-bikes":1lom0qen said:
And Mr Trimble is enjoying his early retirement somewhere in the Bahama's spending the megabucks he made from selling overpriced bike frames?
...... yeah right, I thought so.
I can't really say if it is a rip off, haven't seen the marketing blurb on these. There is a lot of it about though, marketing blurb that is. To engineer and build something good in Carbon is where art and science intersect. But the "wrong" stuff often still looks "right"! (To me anyways).
I only ever started Mountainbiking to stay fit for windsurfing, and in a previous life I've designed and built a couple of dozen windsurf boards. Carbon-Epoxy sandwich boards, the more developed incarnations sub 6kg and durable. Heck, I sail a few to this day going on 10+ years old now, but retro windsurfing is still somewhat unchartered territory :roll: .
Those days I had access to professional kit and materials. But if I had worked the hours for the boss I could have bought any board I desired. The very few guys that sustain small custom brands are very good (as in world cup winning good) and more often than not sell surf wear on the side to pay the mortgage.
Enjoy!!
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