Carbon fibre wheels on a 600 road bike?

duncanpage · Scooby Slapper Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Karma :

Hi all

Just wanted your opinion on whether it's a good idea to put carbon fibre wheels on a 2010 zx6r.
I won't be going on the track so I'm not worried about the '3 seconds a lap I'll save', I'm more interested in the look of them & how they'll handle on the road.
Will they take a bit of a beating on London's craters the council call pot holes?

Let me know your views

Cheers

Duncan

G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=203623
Make sure you read through to the third page at least.
Note the dates of the posts from the first post to then.

lllN30lll · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Jun 2005 Karma :

Same with mine, literally about 4 days Laughing

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Turbo R1
CRF450R

duncanpage · Scooby Slapper Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Karma :

That's answered that one for me!
I'll stick with the standard wheels & clean them regularly!

Cheers

lllN30lll · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Jun 2005 Karma :

There's nothing wrong with them, It just takes a lot of getting used to them as they behave so differently than stock items, the front wheel is 2.5kg lighter than stock.

Bare in mind both mine and Luke's smashed because we crashed out bikes into kerbs.
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Turbo R1
CRF450R

duncanpage · Scooby Slapper Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Karma :

Would the standard wheels have stood up to the beating from the curb?

lllN30lll · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Jun 2005 Karma :

Would have probably bent them too.
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Turbo R1
CRF450R

Nexus Icon · World Chat Champion Joined: 26 Aug 2010 Karma :

One thing I don't know about Carbon wheels for road use is whether they're sold with a "life span". I only ask because I work in a industry largely based on the use of carbon fibre and virtually all of our parts have a life span and certainly the stressed parts have. Things like huggers and fairings wouldn't present any problems but, unless they're over-engineered to death beyond the neccessary design strengths, I'd be concerned about using old carbon parts like swing-arms, wheels, etc.

Actually, I guess that would apply to road cars with carbon chassis and the like too so, answering my own question, the factor of safety built into these parts must be so large as to negate a large proportion of the weight/stiffness advantage of the carbon in the first place.

Thanks for listening, I'll move along now.