At 8:58 AM -0700 8/10/09, Kurt Sperry wrote:
>I suspect there will be a goodly number of today's plastic framed
>bikes still in good condition in 50 years time given the fact that
many bikes are purchased as an impulse buy
No doubt about unused bikes always being available, but will they be as useable as the classic steel bikes we love?
Plastic ages. I recently gave my 1970s Playmobil figures to my children. 35 years on, the plastic has become brittle, and some of the figures (white ones especially) break when you put the tools in their hands. (They were much stronger when new.)
So it may be hard to ride a 50-year-old carbon bike without breaking it.
Of course, there are plastics that resist aging and UV very well, but I have little confidence in the bike industry to get that aspect right. After all, they advertise performance, not longevity.
(Many car makers can't even get their dashboards to withstand a few decades of sunlight. Let's hope Boeing gets it right on their new carbon-fiber 787 airplane. First indications are not good on that one, either.)
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com