Originally Posted by
Integra
I beg to differ on everysingle one of your points.
Without being argumentative: then I'd love you to elaborate.
It is a fact that carbon laminates have much lower abrasion resistance that glass and waaaay less that Kevlar or Spectra. I could demo that to you anytime, I hate doing Kevlar work as grinding excess off the mould edge is a nightmare... with carbon I just touch it with the file and it is gone.
Fact: carbon is stiff but when it fails it
really fails. For eg: in windsurfing, 100% carbon masts snap for no reason eventually.... just thru continual flex cycles... the cheaper 50% ones dont!! Obviously to those who race, 100% is important due to superiour reflex response and that extra bit of performance but they know it won't last as long.
I never said these carbon chassis' WILL break... I just said that when taken to it's limit alloy will bend a little but carbon will snap. Combined with carbon's lower life when continually cycled thru bend and straighten (compared to metals) it will fail erlier.
The only way to mitigate these factors is to make the chassis just as heavy as an alloy one.... and then you have zero flex and no advantages over alloy at all.