Pre tariffs you could get a whole Carbon bike frame from CN (including stem, handlebar, fork) for $500.
And while I'll give that there was variety between vendors, some of them were doing sophisticated layups with multiple grades of wave that withstood a torture tests far beyond the ANSI bike tests.
In fact you could argue they were overbuilt compared to Western brands (at a cost of 100 - 150g) since they didn't want to deal with warranty claims.
Truly amazing, cheap, good quality mass market carbon products.
> In fact you could argue they were overbuilt compared to Western brands (at a cost of 100 - 150g) since they didn't want to deal with warranty claims.
That's the single strongest advertising for a product I've seen in a while.
As a customer, I also don't want to deal with warranty claims. Overbuilt = as it should be. Excessive optimization ("value engineering") = bad, waste of resources, and producer of trash.
(Excessive optimization also limits what you can do with a product, and is potentially unsafe, as normal use could exceed structural or operational limits of the product, breaking it, and potentially hurting the user.)
(Okay, I feel like I'm gearing for a long rant about sorry state of physical goods on the market, so I'll just stop now.)
Not just the i3, BMW also produced the 'carbon core' 7-series, which I think was a very interesting development as well.
The 'carbon core' chassis are a combination of steel, aluminium and carbon fiber parts bonded together with adhesives. It is primarily used to improve chassis stiffness, not necessarily for weight savings.
Unfortunately it wasn't well received by the public, most critics seemed to agree that it's a bit of a gimmick feature. As far as I can tell BMW is no longer using the carbon core concept anymore. It was announced at the time that the 5-series would get a carbon core chassis as well, but I don't think that ever happened. The technology also hasn't trickled down to their performance cars lineup as most had hoped.
To me it's kind of saddening that people are willing to pay top money for carbon fiber body panels and interior trim, but when applied to the chassis (where it actually matters) they become sceptical armchair engineers.
Anecdotal, but a friend of mine who worked at BMW dealership at the time told me that the i3 didn't sell as good as BMW had anticipated, but since they had already invested heavily in the tooling to produce the i3 carbon chassis parts they needed to look for other applications. Apparently this is what led to the carbon core chassis concept for the then upcoming G11 7-series.
Most sports equipment where weight is a factor and there's no regulation preventing the use of carbon fiber has some carbon fiber alternatives! There's usually cheaper alternatives made of other materials, but the carbon fiber alternatives aren't particularly expensive.
I remember buying a carbon fiber squash racquet back in college when money was tight without breaking the bank (although I did break the racquet when accidentally hitting the backwall instead of the ball once though)
Do those still have a habit of snapping without any prior warning?
Having said that, the chrome moly top tube on my road bike broke without warning. Granted I did get hit by a cop car doing 80kph in a 50kph zone. Strained a thumb too.
I ran into a car that abruptly turned in front of me, impacting at 40 kph, followed by a somersault over the top and landing on the rear wheel. the frame absorbed the impact with the road and nicely snapped both seatstays but otherwise held up rather well.
Yes when CF fails it fails catastrophically but practically no, you do not ride your bike enough for the repeated fatigue to weaken modern CF enough for a catastrophic failure. If you do ride your bike enough, you're almost certainly replacing frequently enough that it will never be an issue.
If you want a bike to give to your grandkids when you die get Ti or some form of steel.
My 80’ Concorde steel frame is still intact -well slightly bend but not failure in sight- despite the daily commute and holidays backpacking/trailer. Grandkid test check.
> If you do ride your bike enough, you're almost certainly replacing frequently enough that it will never be an issue.
True for the light athletes that take care during usage and "upgrade" often. Part of the motivation to upgrade is security.
Be more careful if you ride in urban/outdoor with potholes and like to keep using a piece a hardware when it fits your needs.
As a bike mechanist we checked meticulously every second hand frame we sell and find some cracks time to time. Those happen (CN and Aluminum). Direct to the bin.
More importantly: check your rims, especially as we entered the disk era and don’t change them so often. They also do get cracks and fail catastrophically.
I own a 1992 Specialzied Epic Allez with carbon tubes bonded to aluminium lugs. I had an issue with a bond failing at the chainstay and it was repaired but the carbon tubes themselves are still going strong.
I am familiar with the failure mode of bonded frame, we had a number of vitus bikes in the family and usually they just become so noodly you stop before the bond is giving up totally. To be honest I am more concerned about the fatigue of the aluminum fork legs which is the reason I recently ordered a steel fork for the next time I am riding it.
I find CF poles last at least 400 miles on average through moderately rocky terrain. And rarely catastrophic failure. Lots of collapsible poles tend to start breaking close enough to the sleeve that you can shift the rings and tighten them and buy some time.
I've not seen any issues with random catastrophic failure like that in MTB land. Maybe it's because the parts are generally laid up much stronger than road? Wheels will break if you mash them into a rock, and even then Santa Cruz notoriously has a line of rims that Danny Macaskill had to ride down stairs repeatedly with no tires on to break.
With the ubiquity of frames at the high amateur level, if there were still issues you'd hear more about them.
Re CF frames... one neglected point is that even when you do crunch them into a rock, they're repairable, whereas Al frames aren't worth repairing due to the heat treat needed. My own CF XC MTB has a repaired chainstay.
where does it come from? Equinox EV is $35K MSRP and with $7.5K tax credit you get under $30K. Of course if $5K extra is not that expensive for you then i guess your "basic car" is a bit less basic than one may think :)
It's not even that expensive if you consider that it's maybe 5k extra now that even a basic car can cost $40000