Carbon Vs Aluminum Mountain Bike Weight

Using high grade carbon and clever engineering designers are able to produce carbon bikes that are very strong while being ludicrously light.

Carbon vs aluminum mountain bike weight. Most of the bikes ridden at world cup enduro world series level will be carbon although it isn t ubiquitous but it would be simplistic and maybe even wrong to say that carbon is objectively better. We fatigue tested aluminum and carbon bars with very similar surface damage. But this is the bike as a whole and i have made it as fair as possible. Let s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each material.

In general carbon fiber frames are lighter than aluminum frames. One of the most obvious and looked for advantages of carbon mountain bikes is their weight. The primary difference between carbon and aluminum comes down to weight and ride quality. Carbon fiber doesn t exhibit this type of crack propagation.

Many major manufacturers now regularly produce carbon road bikes that weigh less than 15 lbs complete and cross country mountain bikes weighing in around 20 lbs. In comparison an aluminum bike can get very close to that weight limit. On a carbon bike the catastrophic failure point is much higher than an aluminum bike due to the flex qualities of the carbon material. Ride quality is more noticeable on road frames than mountain frames with vibrations being damped by carbon more so than.

The quality of the frame will ultimately determine weight. Yes you can buy a quality aluminium mountain bike that is lighter than many rigs made. Different factors like frame size manufacturer components and wheels have a big effect on weight but most aluminum bikes come in at around 18 pounds or lighter while still costing far less than a carbon fiber bike. Just as one impact of this nature could break an aluminum frame and not a carbon frame repeated stresses in this manner would cause an aluminum frame to break sooner as well.

Should you buy a carbon mountain bike with cheap components or a top of the range aluminium mtb. It s not a secret that it s a lot easier to fashion a lighter frame from carbon than it is from aluminium. In order to create lightweight frames tube thickness is varied throughout the length of the tube. Carbon frames are usually a bit lighter than aluminum up to a pound for mountain frames and up to a half pound on road frames.

Carbon mountain bike vs aluminium mountain bike. A well built lightweight aluminum frame could weigh less than an inexpensive carbon frame. There are two main frame materials you will encounter when deciding to buy a mountain bike carbon and aluminium. Remember though that the carbon does have disc brakes so they are going to be heavier than the wheels on the alloy bike.