Why doesnt unicyclist use carbon equipment? There are no other carbon parts than the cf base.
If you use a rail bracket you could use a carbon seatpost for two wheel cycling. But I havent seen it before.
Im a mountainbiker and the bikes we are using are almost completly made of carbon. The frame, wheels, bars, cranks, etc.
Wouldnt it for example be possible to make a unicycle with a carbon frame? The weight savings would be huge!
There are few CF frames made, and maybe another one that is still in production. There are also CF bumpers and handles. Joe Campbell used a CF seatpost, but he broke it within a day.
It’s not that easy. I’m used to work with glass fiber, and to have a great result you’ll need some trys.
If you just want a crbon frame, I would buy the carbon fiber tubes, and machine the bearing holders and a XTP Style crown, but I don’t know the best way to “weld” aluminium to carbon fiber!
streetcycalist - If you wanted a fully moulded CF frame, you would need to use a foam mould or something similar, and probably a vacuum bag… another, probably much easier and cheaper option would be to use carbon tubing then make the crown and bearing holders from alu. There are probably many other techniques to mould cf, but I’m not an expert in this kind of stuff (I’m not an expert in anything really)
a unicycle frame only weighs a few hundred grams, even if you made it of air, the weight saving would only be a few hundred grams. Unicycles get dropped and bashed a lot more than bikes, and carbon is bad for that, its brittle nature means it chips relatively easy which can then cause crack propogation. Carbon isn’t a wonder material, in certain applications it works well, in others it’s useless.
You make a good point there, the frame doesn’t weigh much at all. The only advantage would be Pimp Factor. Carbon rims would reduce rotating mass making the unicycle more responsive and give it a lighter feel.
A carbon rim for a 36er seems like a good idea. It would be something like half the weight of a nightrider, but probably more than most of us can afford.
i would recommend against using mountain biking carbon seat posts, unless specifically designed for DH…i race mtb and cyclocross, and have seen to many carbon seat posts fail, also forks and handlebars.
a uni is hammered and pounded into the ground much more than an mtb…DH specific carbon parts are beginning to become available…
the reason i use carbon parts is weight. however, i would never use them on any of my unicycles because carbon is expensive and should not be abused…
I keep thinking about vacu-forming a mold out of my Airfoil rim and looking into creating a CF version of it(vacuform a mold, fill it with foam take out the foam core and create the CF rim around the foam core.) but it’s WAY too expensive for me to undertake and I haven’t got the skill to attempt it.
my dads friend owns a composite company that makes rims and stuff for trek I will have to talk to him about making a 36er rim im sure they have all the necessary stuff to do it.