Carbon DH bikes = Future ??

Here's another - the Carbon 29er DH bike by BCD (he also made 26in versions)


I see carbon as a very viable material for most applications, provided it can be shielded from rock impacts somehow. We will very likely see more and more of them as time goes on.

it most likely wil be, carbon can easily be made to handle downhilling and it comes with reduced weight. just have to wait for the cost of production to drop a little and more companies will start to offer them as the top of the line rigs. happened in just about every other type of biking (ie: road, xc, am)

I like carbon although im not too ok with the environmental offset it has.. or that people say it has, im not sure 100% but im pretty sure its bad for the environment.

After thrashing a Carbon Nomad for over a year now and it shows less wear than my old alloy one i vote Carbon.
Have a Carbon V-10'er now and strength/weight/stiffness ratios are amazing.
Im sure we will see Trek and Specialized joining the party pretty soon too, wouldn't be surprised if it is this year too, and dont count SC on not making further tweaks and changes/additions.
Half the World Cups last year were won on Carbon DH bikes, when weight and strength play such a big part of Sales and marketing its only a matter of time especially with technology, Composite materials and manufacturing improvements each year.

Downhill itself is terrible for the environment. We buy bikes that take a lot of energy to make, use a bunch of fluids that are bad for mother nature, drive our cars for hours to get to the places to ride, take lifts that run all day consuming energy, ride trails that are built most often using big energy consuming machines... Not buying a carbon bike because of it's manufacturing footprint is like trying to clean up after a hurricane with a q-tip.

On the topic of rock protection, I just had an idea. Carbon frames are made by lining a very expensive mold with carbon fiber sheets and epoxy etc. What if, like an inmolded helmet, the carbon was laid into a cheep to produce plastic or some such mold, which would remain a part of the frame, protecting the carbon on the inside?

With all the advances that Boeing and Airbus are putting into new composite structures we have yet to see what carbon and advanced composites can do for the bike industry. To top it all off there are a ton of aerospace geeks out of work right now. This is only the beginning. When it comes to rock protection there is a composite resin in use today called high density polyethylene resin (HDPE). So instead of in-molding a piece of plastic the outer plastic shell is the resin itself. In aircraft design we don't really worry about rocks so much, but a bird into a wing leading edge at 400+ miles an hour can really end your day quick. Up until a few years ago most leading edges had some sort of metal cap over them, but as new materials have come into the game that is now no longer common practice. The thing you really have to watch is rubs (racks, chair lifts, TAILGATES!!!) I'm buying stock in Da Kine because the tailgate pad market is going to grow in a big way.

Also I know guys that can repair holes in carbon , and you would never know there was any repair made, or any effect of structure or weight. It will just be a matter of time before people in the bike industry learn to repair carbon frames, and small dings and holes from rocks just become a standard repair like a base or core shot on you skies. Even with my current level of composite repair knowledge I could do a scarf patch to my CV-10 if I needed to, and I would have to point it out to you.

Another thing that people forget about carbon is it's ability to dampen out vibration that causes fatigue in not only components, but also the human body. In aircraft we have found that pilots fatigue at a slower rate, and things such as exhaust components, gyros, and radios last twice as long because carbon removes a ton of hi freq vibration that comes from the engine and propeller. So think about how much less is making to the bars (hands) and pedals (feet).

Go look up what they use to process aluminium!!! Yikes!

santa cruz did it right with the more slender, but thicker tubes of carbon, i was always thinking about how it would suck to crack a frame a a rock, but with santa cruz's build, its convinced me that carbon is the way to go. think of how long these bikes will last too, of course everyone will be upgrading, but the used bikes will trickle down the beginners and they won;t be starting off with beaters.

Bump. The future is here.