Carbon Fiber Mountain Bike Frame Vs Aluminum

These are kind of a novelty at this point.

Carbon fiber mountain bike frame vs aluminum.

The fatigue life of the aluminum handlebar was reduced due to surface damage but the carbon bar was not affected. Conversely carbon possesses the longest fatigue life. There are two main frame materials you will encounter when deciding to buy a mountain bike carbon and aluminium. Of the lead materials used for bike frames ranging from aluminum to titanium and even carbon fiber chromoly offers the best cost benefit ratio.

These joints are similar to carbon fiber. While both aluminum and carbon bikes will offer a little bit of flex in this way carbon bikes will offer a far greater amount of power. Having said that bamboo is a legitimate bike frame material. Carbon fiber doesn t exhibit this type of crack propagation.

The vast majority of modern bikes however will be made from aluminum or carbon fiber. One of the most discussed aspects of carbon fiber frames is the weight savings over aluminum frames. Most bike frames will be made of either steel titanium aluminum or carbon fiber steel and titanium are the most popular options for custom and handmade bike building. Most bamboo bikes are made by starting with strong bamboo poles then binding the joints together with fiber and resin.

In truth if we tested the strength of the same frame built from carbon and aluminum you would see that carbon fiber frames are much stronger per pound in terms of both stress tests and impact tests. Most manufacturers provide a lifetime warranty on carbon frames. Aluminum frames possess the shortest fatigue life of any material used to manufacture bicycle frames. Luckily damage to carbon frames can usually be repaired whereas re welding or patching a cracked aluminum frame is not safe.

The typical aluminum frame possesses a life expectancy of five to 10 years. For more info check out my carbon fiber vs aluminum frame guide. It s lighter and stiffer than steel but it s also more brittle and easily damaged. We fatigue tested aluminum and carbon bars with very similar surface damage.

Even then current carbon fiber is very strong and a large impact force would have to be sustained enough to badly dent an aluminum frame. When you re riding a carbon fiber frame that has been designed with this in mind you can add a tremendous amount of power to your ride by transferring this energy to the back wheel. Most of the bikes ridden at world cup enduro world series level will be carbon although it isn t ubiquitous but it would be simplistic and maybe even wrong to say that carbon is objectively better. Let s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each material.

That said we still recommend replacing any carbon or aluminum product that has been damaged.