Anyone using BST Carbon Fiber wheels?

I love that new black Panigale SP. $37k so all I can do is look at it.

It’s got the same wheels as the Super.

if I got one I’d put the wheels on the wall as art and get some Marxhesinis or even plain stock wheels for riding it. I’m 50 and in bifocals so inspecting those wheels for hairline cracks would be difficult at best.

 

Clean them really well. Do a visual inspection for cracks. Lots of light and maybe a magnifying glass. If thats good use a dye penetrant to look for very small cracks.
You can get a Dye Penetrant Kit for like ~$100. That would help see any very small surface cracks.

If you really want to spend money look around for a company doing NDT - Non Destructive testing. Be prepared to pay "Aircraft" pricing for some sort of magnetic or xray testing.

 

You’re comparing pro Mtn Bike riders who show up to a race with 10-15 $15,000 bikes in the trailer which each frame is usually rated for one race. Same as the Tour de France bikes. They’re all Carbon and throw them away after 1-2 legs usually.
So you’re comparing these bicycles which are thrown away after one time use but saying how they’re so much better? Lol. My down hill frame is not Carbon and I bought a non Carbon one so in 5 years and 10 years it’s still great.

 

OK since you ripped someone on physics..... consider the landing angle of the 60 ft fall you talk of. It is not like it is hitting square. I have no desire to do any calculations but the comparison is a bit flawed. Weight was pointed out. But also angle of torque applied to the rim. Also the fact that the motorcycle is applying multiple torques while lets face it the torque on the bike is almost entirely from gravity vs ground angle. A rider in full gear likely weighs as much as the push bike and rider combined. And instead of well over 150hp at the wheel what is it on a push bike even with an elite athlete?

That said an RC51 with lighter rims than the heavy stock ones made a noticeable difference even with a slow ass ..... In addition to ease of turning it helped on braking and acceleration out of a turn. On the front straight of Barber with a friend on a CBR he would pull me 2-4 bike lengths, lighter rims almost a dead heat then I could out brake him (which I did on stockers also). Though with carbon I would have the same concern as others point out, failure mode tends to be far more catastrophic than metal.

 

You are highly mistaken about the program, # of bikes, or cost of 95% of the dudes that show up to that event. It ain't the TdF. Shoestring budgets and no throwaway bikes and half of them don't even have a mechanic besides their buds that red bull paid scraps to help come dig. Wrong event brosef.

 

Yeah, but it's bicycles. Nobody gives a fuck about bicycles. They might have two round wheels with rubber but you have to turn the crank manually. Pfft. No wonder they're launching themselves off cliffs.

 

Much obliged!

 

Non-bicyclists have no clue. Even more so is non-technical non-bicyclists. I was pretty clueless about bicycles until 2013 when I started riding right before I became paralyzed in my racing crash. My brother raced bicycles for a few decades so I bought one of his racing bikes off him. I was shocked and amazed at how comfortable it was but also how well it put the power down to the ground from the crank. I also hit some serious potholes at 40+mph with zero issues. Bicycle manufacturers have definitely figured out how to make carbon frames strong where they need to be but also absorb bumps and impacts for comfort. Same with carbon bicycle wheel manufacturers. Fast forward to 2020 when I built up my full carbon handcycle with aftermarket C7 Concepts carbon wheels. The roads in SC really suck in places. One is the decent down the mountain from Saluda, NC down to Tigerville area of SC. I easily exceed 50 mph on my handcycle and have hit some serious bumps and holes. No problem for the wheels or the bike. Is it the same as carbon motorcycle wheels and what they see in use? No. My point is if it is designed right, I'd trust them. I haven't bothered to check but I wonder what BST says about racing with their carbon wheels? I doubt they would sell them if they had a limited service life or overly fragile. Seems like the lawyers would be lining up at their door if they are.

 

I've got 2 sets of BST wheels one on a street bike one on a track bike,never an issue with either set,changed lots of tires on both sets,no issues.I've also got
a set of forged Marchesini for the track bike and they weigh about the same as the BST's.Street bike wheels were made in 1995 I believe.Just my experience
YMMV.I don't know anything about Marxechini but wouldn't trust anything made in a co-op.

 

What event are you talking about? I brought up no event. I’m talking about the guys you see on espn. I’m comparing apples to apples. Pro to pro. The pro Carbon bicycle frames you see on tv doin amazing jumps are thrown away at the end of the day. Not mistaken at all. The guys at the club events may not be throwing their frames away because they can’t afford to. Doesn’t mean that Carbon isn’t going to shit. I used to own a company that made Carbon parts. I’ve dabbled in them to say the least.

 

Who are you to challenge the wisdom of the beeb?

 

2021 S1000rr wheel

 

OZ Racing Magnesium wheel



fun game let's keep going.

 

Where are you at? If it is close to any oilfield stuff there will probably be several companies that do dye penetrant inspection in the area.

 

What Joe said about carbon frames and wheels. The stuff works, and works well.

The issue with carbon anything is that works well as designed. Once you start applying forces in directions the wheel/frame/whatever part was not designed to handle, you are likely to have a failure. The issue with carbon more than alloy or magnesium is that the failure is then usually catastrophic. Alloys bend or deform, while carbon breaks/delaminates/shatters. That's seems to be where carbon falls short.

For example, my buddy is a pretty aggressive enduro rider/racer, and not the easiest on gear and equipment. Raves about his carbon wheels. Last week he dropped his bike while loading and the frame hit an edge of (I think) the hitch rack. Cracked/broke the frame.

YMMV.

 

One thing people have to remember with carbon is that while it can be incredibly strong and resistant to evenly distributed loads, it is not very resistant to point load impacts. There are probably very few situations on the road where the wheel will fail, but if you hit a pothole hard enough to pinch the tire against the rim it now becomes a point load situation and damage is more likely to occur. Same in a crash on track if the bike is sliding/tumbling and impacts a solid object like a rock, curb, etc. The weakness is the impact resistance of the resin used. There are companies developing more impact resistant resin layups and the MTB industry is on the forefront of this. I think that in the future carbon motorcycle wheels will get there, but for now I can see the argument against them for track use where frequent abuse is common.

 

Some of you people here are acting like anyone said that carbon fiber experiences catastrophic failure 50% of the time or some shit. And you have the balls to talk about made-up drama!

The real questions are 1) what percentage are you comfortable with and 2) are you willing to roll the dice on used carbon fiber wheels.

Nobody said you have to live in fear if you get them straight from the manufacturer. Still, that could end up badly. But it most likely won't.

That said, I can't remember as I write this if it was John Barnard or Gordon Murray who designed the first carbon fiber-tub F1 car for McLaren in the early 1980s, but I know that Murray was part of the early years. He certainly knows a little bit about the material. Well, Gordon Murray doesn't trust carbon fiber enough to use it on the wheels of his new T.50, which is made of carbon fiber everywhere else. And the damn thing has four wheels! It's not as if you lose 50% of them if one fails. But hey, what does he know?

 

He could learn a thing or three from the beeb.

 

Well, there didn't used be carbon fiber anything on the retail market within the adult lifetime of many here on the bbs. Now, you can get carbon interior trim pieces for your import tuner car. Technology and development will march on and I see nothing but more and better carbon fiber products and applications being developed. Just research who you are buying from ahead of time and expect to pay for high quality kit. Hell, I paid $1700 for three carbon wheels for my handcycle! Based on the abuse I have put them through and they are still perfect and true I would say money well spent.

 

I'll add the bicycle market is way ahead of the motorcycle industry when it comes to carbon fiber development primarily because of volume. When you sell millions of bicycles you can afford the R&D to get the carbon fiber development use improved over and over and over. Money talks as usual.