No, i did not find carbon fiber rims... i'm just wondering if they exist, and if not, why not? Don't say they're not strong enough cause Dr Seal (67 yr old who's been building his own engines since he was 17) built a carbon fiber engine block (I've seen it with my own eyes).

If this were to happen, then rims would weigh about 5lbs i'm guessing.

 

i've seen carbon fiber rims.

 

carbon fiber rim

one more

last one

 

don't even try guessing how much they are..

 

What I would like to know is what the weight is and how well that wheel is going to hold up on a small pothole?

Dixit

 

or how about a curb check or rub?

then how much $$$ to repair them

 

BBS used to make a carbon fiber version of the moda m2... good luck finding a pic though.

 

That was just a carbon fiber-look. Not real CF.

Plus CF isnt a good idea for street rims. When you hit it too hard, it doesn't bend...it shatters.

 

"Beautiful but deadly" would be a good description. One good chip from a curb rub or from a flying rock could, potentially, cause the rim to fail. Failed rim = you wreck.

Professional cyclists (re: Lance Armstrong) use CF rims on their bikes on some mountain stages, but most of them are still not comfortable enough on them to ride them during a regular race where there is a chance of crashing with other cyclists. Same thing... they don't want to shatter a rim.

So, if a 16 pound bicycle is questionable on CF rims, you'd better believe that a 3000 pound car would be too. I'm sure the future will bring rims like these to us, but I think there's still some work to be done to make them less likely to fail.

 

Wheres Cheston...

 

I don't think a 16 lb bike is questionable on CF rims. CF rims on bikes are actually pretty damn heavy compared to spoked wheels. On my old mountain bike, I actually got CF wheels because they were stronger than the spoked versions. They were heavier, but the tradeoff was worth it for me.

On road bikes, CF wheels usually have pretty good aerodynamics, but not so great weight. A CF bike wheel isn't that fragile. If a road biker hits another road biker, the wheel is probably destroyed whether or not it's spoked or CF.

 

Well, the CF wheels that Lance rode in the mountains during last year's Tour de France weighed about 900 grams FOR THE SET! Now, on my road bike, I have Spinergy Spox R1's, which are considered to be a "light weight" spoked wheel, and they weigh in at about 1600 grams. That's a heck of a weight difference between carbon and metal, if you ask me.

Who makes CF mountain bike wheels? I've never seen 'em. You're right about the aerodynamics of the CF wheels, too. I just didn't think anybody here would be worried about that on their car. I'm over 200 pounds, and I've hit some stuff on my road bike (including another rider... long story) that probably would have destroyed some CF rims, but all it did to my Spox is knock them out of true. So, that's another detriment, like someone said earlier... CF doesn't bend, it explodes! Anyway... we better quit talking about bikes on here... mod's watching.

 

Arent Spinergy wheels made out of cf? I remember back in the day all the bikes on pacific blue had them, and if I remember correctly they are made out of cf...was going to get them for my bike but they were a tooonnn of $ for just wheels.

 

Pacific Blue...

Yeah, the Spinergy RevX's were CF (actually, the rim itself was still metal), but I have the Spox wheels. They are metal aero rims with "vectran" spokes... some kind of kevlar/carbon/something else combination. I'll post a pic of my bike on my homepage, if you want to see what I'm talking about (check page 5).

 

SuDZ

 

I do know that there was a Spinergy CF wheel that was having a problem falling breaking during the ride, and making quite a few people wreck and get hurt. I dont know of any CF MB rims, but I do know that its becoming for popular with MB frames. I know the TerraShark is a CF frame, plus theres a tome of Roddie frames that are CF.

 

That had to do with a poor design. They used rivets to attach the spokes to the rim, and the CF would crack near that area and the wheel woul eventually separate and fail. Back in the day, there were quite a few CF rim companies. Spinergy, Spin (more of a thermoplastic), Aerospoke, and a couple of others I can't remember. CF has been popular for MB frames for a long time now. It just took them a while to figure out how to join CF tubes.

 

Albert from FiberImages has carbon fiber custom (5szigen's i believe) wheels.. they are pretty insane.. his entire 02' civic is carbon fiber for that matter..

makes you wonder why my 19" wheels weigh as much as carbon fiber wheel and cost about 1/10th the cost.. then again, they aren't cf.

 

hehehe.

$20!


CF rims would be VERY difficult, even if they had a good mold. to do a CF rim like that, it cant be a hollow rim filled. its gotta be about 20 layers or something.

i think thats just a regular rim wrapped in CF..

 

i got carbon fiber tires

 

The Fiber Images Civic has carbon fiber wrapped wheels, still aluminum under there. They just overlayed some carbon on it.

 

I saw the CF Civic in a magazine a few months ago. Kinda crazy with so much CF but actually did not look to bad in the pictures.

SuDZ

 

that's what you think.

 

I read the feature on that car, they even state it's carbon fiber over aluminum.