As more and more companies enter the world of carbon fiber, are there any plans for a carbon Banshee in the future?
Currently we don’t feel that we can offer value for money to our customers by going carbon, and we don’t see overall performance benefits that come anywhere close to justifying the price yet. (...)
The other issue big with carbon is that the materials used do not yet satisfy our safety demands. We know that Banshee riders are hard riders, certainly aiming to progress more than your average mountain biker. They love to push their limits, and as a result they will at some point crash. Crashing inevitable for any real rider who wants to progress. Carbon is not a good material for coping with direct rock impacts (like seen when crashing in a rock garden) followed by frame loading, and will often not clearly show damage until structural failure.
There is an analogy that I use: Road bikes are comparable to formula one race cars. Aerodynamics are a top priority, and input loads are very predictable due to the nature of the relatively smooth racetracks. Carbon is used because it can be shaped for aerodynamics and reinforced to cope with the predicted loads. They are not designed to cope with large unexpected impacts or off axis loading. If crashed the carbon parts will be damaged. It may be invisible delamination which can lead catastrophic failure, or it may just shatter as is often seen in F1 cars.
Mountain bikes are like rally cars. The loads are unpredictable (think of all the loads that happen as you charge through a rock garden), and rock impacts and crashes are pretty common, with the expectation from the rider that after a crash that the framework will still be able to ride/drive away in most cases. Alloy is better at coping with unpredictable loads due to its isotropic nature (equal strength in all directions) and generally copes better with direct impacts due to greater material flexibility, and ability to dissipate very large impacts by means of plastic deformation (dent). So ask yourself this… The car industry spends many millions more on R&D than the bike industry does, so why do rally cars still use aluminium chassis? Maybe something to consider before your next frame purchase.
That said, IF new carbon composites and manufacturing techniques become available that dissipate impact load better from rock strikes and crash damage, show when structural damage has occurred more clearly, AND the performance gains justify the cost to our customers then we will probably start making carbon frames.
