On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 9:58:34 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:06:50 AM UTC-5, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
If you're like Tom and are thinking about buying a cheap Chinese knockoff of anything pertaining to bicycling then you might want to read this. When it comes to Chinese stuff it really is BUYER BEWARE!

This guy didn't even know he was getting a Chinese counterfeit item. (The price should have warned him)

https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear...ake-bike-gear/


Here's one of the best parts of that article:

"every carbon fiber product is a quality-control batch of one, and the finished outside shape tells you almost zero about what’s really inside.

I really like that phrase "... a quality-control batch of one..."

The further explanation was good, too:

"A frame can have hundreds of individual sheets of carbon fiber (called plies) of varying size and shape, which are placed in the mold in specific places in a rigidly defined order (called the layup). To make matters more complex, carbon fiber is unidirectional; its stiffness and strength characteristics apply only along one axis. To preserve those characteristics, a manufacturer must get the number, shape, and size of the plies, and their fiber orientation in the correct order, every time. That’s to say nothing of the actual grades of carbon fiber used, or the resin that holds the fibers in place and adds toughness and durability, or the sophistication and reliability of the manufacturer’s own production process."

- Frank Krygowski

Frank, all of that is true so to be perfectly safe you shouldn't fly in any of the modern commercial aircraft which have extensive use of carbon fiber in the airframe, wing sections and now the entire skin.