WHAT'S IN A CARBON FIBER?

T800H leads the pack.

Not all carbon fibers are created equal. Now a ubiquitous material in bicycle frames, components, wheels, etc and a designation peppered throughout product catalogues and websites, it's easy to assume that carbon is well...carbon. But, just like different grades of steel, aluminum, etc carbon has a wide variety of quality levels and performance characteristics.

Through a long association with F1 world champion driver, Alain Prost, Cyfac has an intimate knowledge of carbon composite materials. Understanding the application of carbon, the production techniques, and the choice of which fiber to use in a given set of circumstances goes a long way in delivering not just a nice bit of marketing hype but a superlative cycling product. Because of our past experience, we choose the best material for the job, something that will last, and something that will perform best.

Cyfac uses T800H carbon fiber in all of our Double Stay and Double Stay 2 rear triangles, our carbon forks, and the tube sections for all but two of our frames. The best-adapted, most expensive, and requiring the most skill to utilize, T800H is NOT the industry standard. Happy to offer the "CARBON" designation alone, most manufacturers opt for a much less expensive grade of carbon fiber. They get the marketing bang without incurring the cost of the production buck. The rider is generally unaware of this and suffers the carbon delusion.

What makes a particular carbon fiber bad for bicycle frames? A few things:

TOO STIFF - A frame's stiffness is relative to the rider using it. While we all may style ourselves after a professional, we don't all have the power output or riding level to suggest that we should be using what he uses. Yet, so many choose that route and suffer for it.

While golf -- a sport that many cyclists deride as a leisure activity -- clearly knows how to get the right product to the right player, cycling just hasn't caught on to that. In golf, there are clubs for seniors, for women, for juniors, etc. Properly designed and built to provide the right amount of stiffness, weight, and flex to suit the characteristics and level of individual using them, these represent a cohesively designed and built product that helps the user realize their potential and perform optimally. If you gave Tiger Woods' clubs to your ordinary player, the increased stiffness and high-performance characteristics of that powerful, skilled, and properly trained pro's equipment would cause the regular guy to play worse. It could lead to a bad game and even possible injury as the equipment is doing more harm than good.

The same applies to a bicycle frame. TOO STIFF and the rider cannot properly solicity the material. The results: performance suffers and potential for injury increases.

TOO LIGHT - Imagine if you will a frame that weighs 800 grams, definitely a weight that is available in today's market. Because of certain responsibilities to making a fork that isn't going to disintegrate and kill the rider and one that is properly stiff and not going to perform like a noodle, most forks are going to come in around 300 grams. With an entire frameset weight at 1100 grams, more than 25% of it is in the fork. The overall balance of the frameset is off. Add in dynamic motion, the interplay of the rider on the bike, and the the effects of wind, terrain, etc and the entire man-rider system is not going to perform optimally/safely. A properly handling bike does need some mass to it.

TOO BRITTLE - Carbon is interesting in that the stiffer/lighter it gets, the more brittle and prone to failure it is. This "HIGH MODULUS" carbon fiber doesn't lend itself to the rigors of riding and can result in a "disposable" frame. While HM or VHM carbon fibre offers an alluring weight savings, the resulting decrease in frame longevity due to a decrease in the ability to withstand the rigors of real-world conditions (bad roads, impact from racing, travel) is not good.