How long will my carbon frame survive?

[johnny67]

I'm about to buy a new road frame, and I'd love to go carbon because of its increased comfort however, I'm still unsure as to its durability. Does anyone have any experiences (good or bad) with carbon or should I be looking at a more durable but less comfortable alternative ie aluminium or good old steel?

 

[LoveBikes]

Hi,

I have been riding a Trek 5200 OCLV for six year now without any problems. Trek warranties their OCLV frames for the lifetime of the original owner. Not all carbon manufacturers will do that.

 

[ScrollDown]

Hi,
Trek warranties their OCLV frames from manufacturer defects for the lifetime of the original owner.

Fixed. If you hit a bump and get a crack in your frame, good luck getting a new one.


You can expect a good ten years out of a good frame if you take good care of it.

 

[dcvelo]

Fixed. If you hit a bump and get a crack in your frame, good luck getting a new one.


You can expect a good ten years out of a good frame if you take good care of it.

My wife just retired her 1997 OCLV frame this past summer (in fact, I think the frame's still fine but if she wants a new bike no reason to argue the point). Certain types of impact can do in carbon frames pretty quickly, but the same could be said of any material.

 

[Adam-from-SLO]

I've been riding a 1999 Carbon Mono frame since late 2001(when I finally built it up w/Campy Record/chorus 9-speed) , and have over 24K miles on her. I'm not gonna say which frame builder it is, to put a certain emphisis on them (hint: its a French frame builder). The frameset was in the $1800-2000 msrp range. I just recently replaced the front fork(oem = 1" straight blade carbon leg/ Cro-mo steerer- threaded) , with the same builder FULL Mono - Carbon fork/ straight blade, and was able to lighten up the front end by about 1/2 pound !

I plan on riding her probably another 3-5 more years(should be 30-35K miles by then) , then possibly look into selling her for something.

JUst take care of your rig.. and it will take care of you! I do my best while riding to pick the SMOOTHEST line, trying to avoid any uneven surfaces ahead of me.