Originally Posted by
Road Fan
In carbon frame design, isn't there a lot more to it than tubes and lengths? Aren't carbon fabric selection, layering, layup angles, and designing/selecting tube joining strategies and designs also critical? I saw a lot of carbon composite structure design in my career, and the implementation details took a LOT of time. I would think home carbon composite design is "fraught with peril."
There is a lot more to it than tubes, that is a reference to building standard steel. Though carbon tubes could be similar.
Monocoque to build a perfect bike would probably be involved, but there isn't a lot of that going around. Take the example of all these bamboo bikes folks are making. Some are even joined with hemp string. When you consider the inherent strength of something like a carbon monocoque frame, just making the parts stiff enough to support themselves, not oil can. Exactly how much weaker than bamboo held together with string would one expect them to be?
There is a process as a non-engineer i use a lot. I call it managing. As an extreme example, imagine you want to make a time trial bike frame and you are not too fussy about the weight, the main gain would be aero. A hobby thing. You have some idea what commercial frames in carbon are coming in at. You then try to do your best to distribute the fiber where it will do the most good. Yeah, a lot of finite element analysis, prototypes with built in stress cells, and real engineering would help. But that is how a lot of stuff gets built. And also why occasionally something embarrassing like a nose falling off an America's Cup boat also happens.