Carbon Fiber Aftermarket Spring for Rear Shock
- Thread starter AZRacerX
- Start date
can you elaborate how that would work?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
this has to be a joke........
this has to be a joke........
ya not to sure on how this would work....
Sure, basically it would have the same free length, diameter, spring rate, and travel as your stock spring, but it would be made of carbon fiber and be a fraction of the weight. That's all I can really say for now.
Wow, thanks I didn't know that...
Wow, thanks I didn't know that...
......so how do you plan on making a spring out of it?:huh:
Downhillers care about weight?!? Thats new to me.
i would be interested in a coil spring that could also morph into Jessica Alba's pooper while on lonely singletrack. Both have about the same chance of happening at the grassroots mtb level.
I don't plan to, it has already been done and qualified for another application. Every material can deform elastically.
this is true, but the amount of shear stress/strain a rear spring goes through pushes carbon fiber FAR past it's elastic limit.....not to mention getting right spring rates, fatigue, etc....
but carbon fiber has a low elastic limit (joe beat me to it), do you honestly think you will get more then 1 day of riding out of it? the cost of production would be so high that noone would buy them even if they worked. why not try scandium before carbon fiber
Just for your information, carbon springs have existed for years . Just because you're not aware of them doesn't mean they don't exist!!! I actually even have one laying around at home. Too soft a rate and too short a stroke for my bike though but you can get just about any rate.
Me buying one would depend on cost, weight, and sexiness.
You just proved what you don't know. Scandium is a horrible choice for springs.
And yes I would buy it if it were priced right and had proven durability, just like any other part.
Just to clarify.....are we talking about carbon fiber reinforced composite springs, or solely carbon fiber? I assumed he was talking carbon fiber itself.....I know several epoxy-based, carbon fiber reinforced springs exist.
would you care to take a picture?
sarcasm? scandium is awful
Yes we are talking carbon fiber/epoxy. Sorry, I thought that was obvious, but I guess not. My bad.
MUCH better now......I thought you meant solely out of carbon fiber.....hence why I thought you were mentally insane.
LOL, well I never claimed I was not mentally insane!MUCH better now......I thought you meant solely out of carbon fiber.....hence why I thought you were mentally insane.
I don't know if I want my spring made by a guy who says LOL. Haha jk lolwtfbbq. Do you have any ideas on pricing though? Would you be able to make a 275lb x 3" spring?
When I get back from Europe sure.
You can rest easy, I am not making these myself. Sorry, I don't yet know what the price point would be, but I'm assuming it would have to be reasonable (same as or slightly more than a Ti spring) to justify moving forward with this. I'm just trying to get an idea for how this would be received by the DH community.
275lb x 3" should not be a problem.
if its been tested and close to the same price as ti but lighter i dont see why they wouldnt sell
i think i would be intested .
I agree, the company would also have to stand behind the product pretty well also. It would be real easy to have a manufacturing defect in them if the QC wasn't up to par.. To the guys that say they wouldn't work you need to do your homework, they are out there already. Several companies have some patents in for them. Carbon/composite leaf springs have been around a while, look under a newer corvette.
I believe most of our confusion (mine at least) laid in the fact we thought he was talking about pure CF, not a composite, CF-reinforced spring. Crazy, I know, but you have seen what some people on this site have suggested in the past.
Of course he is refering to a composite. I can't think of a single product that uses only carbon fibers. The fibers themself have no compression modulous. You need the resin to make a product other than possibly a rope.I believe most of our confusion (mine at least) laid in the fact we thought he was talking about pure CF, not a composite, CF-reinforced spring. Crazy, I know, but you have seen what some people on this site have suggested in the past.
Let us know if you do go through with manufacturing it.
Manufacturing a steel or ti spring is fairly straightforward. Wrap a coil out of barstock, and then heat treat it.
A resin composite would have to be molded, with a different multipiece 3-D mold for every size and springweight piece you want to produce. Will definately be labour intensive, and not easy to pull off. Coming up with a resin formula that is both durable and flexible to the springweight you want will also be a challenge.
Composite leaf springs would definately be much easier to pull off.
I wish you luck with this, would be cool to see if something is actually able to be done with this idea.
Whats cool about resin composites is that once your mold is made, and formula set, you can pump out as many as you want. And in multi-colours, too.
I think you don't need to look any farther than this thread to find guinea pigs willing to test product out.
A resin composite would have to be molded, with a different multipiece 3-D mold for every size and springweight piece you want to produce. Will definately be labour intensive, and not easy to pull off. Coming up with a resin formula that is both durable and flexible to the springweight you want will also be a challenge.
Composite leaf springs would definately be much easier to pull off.
I wish you luck with this, would be cool to see if something is actually able to be done with this idea.
Whats cool about resin composites is that once your mold is made, and formula set, you can pump out as many as you want. And in multi-colours, too.
I think you don't need to look any farther than this thread to find guinea pigs willing to test product out.
Carbon fibre rules but not for springs
Sounds risky and expensive.
I'll take two.
I recall at IB about 10 years ago a few companies had carbon springs with a braided-look exterior displayed at their booths. Nothing ever came available though.
In 1995 a local Ut. carbon company had me test a carbon "spring" on my bike. It was a hex shaped can with a bunch of carbon wavy hex shaped wafers inside that were stacked staggered so the edges of the wafers met each other on the tips. This was mounted on my shock like a normal spring. The wafers were progressive as they compressed so i believe they were more of a rising rate than a normal steel coil. As they compressed they rubbed a lot inside the can. Between the grinding noise and the rising rate it was not ideal on my stylin' Y bike but damn it looked crazy and was nearly weightless!!! The wafers could be altered to tune progresivity but it was too progressive allready so i never tried any other configurations.
Huge potental..? The vanilla R with the hex can was lighter than my Fox Alps was.
Oh- me in my carbon heyday Oh Yeah!!
I'll take two.
I recall at IB about 10 years ago a few companies had carbon springs with a braided-look exterior displayed at their booths. Nothing ever came available though.
In 1995 a local Ut. carbon company had me test a carbon "spring" on my bike. It was a hex shaped can with a bunch of carbon wavy hex shaped wafers inside that were stacked staggered so the edges of the wafers met each other on the tips. This was mounted on my shock like a normal spring. The wafers were progressive as they compressed so i believe they were more of a rising rate than a normal steel coil. As they compressed they rubbed a lot inside the can. Between the grinding noise and the rising rate it was not ideal on my stylin' Y bike but damn it looked crazy and was nearly weightless!!! The wafers could be altered to tune progresivity but it was too progressive allready so i never tried any other configurations.
Huge potental..? The vanilla R with the hex can was lighter than my Fox Alps was.
Oh- me in my carbon heyday Oh Yeah!!
Neat-o a carbon fiber wave spring stack
