dhk2 said:
Unless they've changed recently, believe all of FSA's "carbon" cranks are built with a core of aluminum and just an outer wrapping of CF. As a result, wouldn't worry about them at all.
Agree inspection after impact is important, as well as being alert to creaking noises or any flexing of the component. IMO, high-quality CF components should be tough enough to survive minor impacts (eg bike falling over) without damage, as well as perform safely for many thousands of miles. After all, millions of CF forks have been on the road now for many years with a proven track record. I've got over 12K miles on my Reynolds Ouzo Pro forks now, and have full confidence in them to last a lot longer.
What he said. Plus, unless I'm mistaken, I believe that FSA may be releasing a set of cranks that
don't have the metal skeleton.
I've crashed--was hit by a car and dragged along the road, and then had another crash with a hard impact on the DS crank arms--with FSA Carbon Team Issue cranks (CF wrapped over metal skeleton), and the crashes did not harm the cranks. I've also been using CF bars for the last 1+ years. They were in the last crash and survived with nary a scratch or busted fiber.
Well made CF components are very crash worthy. In the early days of bicycle CF use, manufacturers were less skilled and less knowledgeable about using CF. As a result, there were a lot of failures (comparitively). Now, the technology is maturing, and the majority of CF components are very durable. In last year's TdF, a rider crashed into a guardrail, pretty much head on, on a mountain descent. He and the bike flipped over the guardrail. The bike frame--forks included--was still rideable after the crash (although I believe the rider did switch bikes). That's pretty damned impressive considering it was a frontal impact at a pretty high velocity.
The biggest problem that CF has today is that the opinions of some people haven't matured re: CF apace with the rate at which CF component quality has matured....but that's usually the way it is with people. Remember that for quite a while aluminum was victimized by all sorts of myths and false assumptions. It still is today, in fact.
If you've got doubts about your CF parts, get them inspected. If you take them to an LBS, you'd better be damned sure that LBS knows what they're doing. There are just as many LBS that don't know squat about CF as there are riders that don't know squat about CF. If in doubt, you can ask the manufacturer for an inspection. It's also possible that places that do CF repair--like Calfee and maybe Rue Sports--will do inspections.
My current crankset is CF, with no metal skeleton. It has an integrated BB whose axle is solid CF. I haven't been nice to it at all, but after a few thousand miles so far, it's the best performing, most quiet crankset I've ever had.
Another point for your consideration....while the application is completely different it shows the potential of CF: F1 cars, IRL cars, and CART cars all have driver tubs made of CF. I've seen some horrorific crashes with these cars from which the driver has emerged unharmed from his undamaged driver's tub. Similarly, we had sitting in one of our labs, the load cell (i.e., the structure to which something is attached for its operation) for a space telescope primary mirror (a mirror that was roughly 2m in diameter). The space telescope was going to sit at L2 (the second lagrange point, which is on a line defined by the Earth and Sun, but is located on that line such that the Earth is between L2 and the Sun)......anyway, if my memory isn't too screwed up, I believe that the temperature at L2 is roughly 40K (-387.7 degrees F). In any case, L2 is a very hostile environment for materials, but CF serves the purpose muy well. The point to all of this is that CF isn't necessarily a fragile material. It's only fragile when used incorrectly. In bicycling, it's not used incorrectly so much anymore. At least not so much as it was in the past. Still, like with any other part on your bike, a CF part should be inspected now and again to be sure that it is in top nick.
