5.9kg Road Gravel Bike - DIY Homemade Carbon Frame

[Erwandy]

Just completed a 100% self built carbon frame.

[spokenwords]

congrats! Hope it rides well. Paint looks great.

[Erwandy]

congrats! Hope it rides well. Paint looks great.

Thanks. I hope so too! lol

[jpeterson1012]

ermmm yeah, lets not do this... while building frames from carbon tube stock is common especially with lugged frames, to say the construction methods shown in the video are far from sound would be a great understatement.

[LouisN]

Wow ! That's ....entertaining !
So many things to question but let's remain positive...
Have fun on your bike, be very careful, and good luck !!

Louis

[Erwandy]

Wow ! That's ....entertaining !
So many things to question but let's remain positive...
Have fun on your bike, be very careful, and good luck !!

Louis

Thanks!
No worries, I am used to this. It is human nature to be skeptical of something they believe they know in theory to be potentially unsound. And they judge based on that beliefs. Me on the other hand, I prefer to test it practically and my satisfaction is knowing for real what wortks and what don't. For example I can already tell you, a 2mm thickness carbon fiber wall is safe for riders under 70kg, and for riders above 100kg, it will have to be carbon tubes with 5mm of thickness and 6 layers of carbon fiber sheets on the joints.

Feel free to shoot me questions and I am happy to share what I do know for sure. And yes I am having a blast here with this bike. Yesterday I did repeated speed bumps attack to see if the frame will buckle with sudden jolts. Happy to say she passed admirably.
Cheers

[LouisN]

I question myself why did you cover the RD hanger with epoxied carbon layers ? It would have been so simple to just work around. Guess you'll Dremel your way to the screws if it bends or snaps ...

Louis

[Erwandy]

I question myself why did you cover the RD hanger with epoxied carbon layers ? It would have been so simple to just work around. Guess you'll Dremel your way to the screws if it bends or snaps ...

Louis

There's little space for me to epoxy the right side dropout. And since an RD hanger is the least likely that I will need to swap out, I opted to just integrate it together. Since 2009 when I started cycling seriously, I can only recall that I have to swap out one RD out of over 20 bikes I owned since then.

If they do need replacement, it is an easy fix to run a circular Dremer cutter to trace the RD body. And then it's an easy fix to slap in new ones, lol

[reedplayer]

Nice frame you created here. Really impressed by your skills (....it is so difficult to handle those carbon fibres).

Seat angle looks sharp, how many degrees has it?

Regards,

[Miller]

@Erwandy, looking at your video, for on-bike shots from the handlebar you might want to try a 360 cam like an Insta360 OneX 1/2/3. You can render your 16:9 edit from a 360 degree field of view and the selfie stick will be invisible.

[spartacus]

For example I can already tell you, a 2mm thickness carbon fiber wall is safe for riders under 70kg, and for riders above 100kg, it will have to be carbon tubes with 5mm of thickness and 6 layers of carbon fiber sheets on the joints.

Isn't a carbon fiber tube with 5mm walls like strong enough to hold the weight of a car? There are bikes with 100kg weight limits and tubing thinner than 2mm so I'm curious what you mean. Guess I should watch the video.

[MichaelK]

The tubes could be an inch thick, doesn't matter... the bonds are joints between the tubes are far more important. Case in point 11 minutes into the video. I very much doubt the epoxy would have permeated through every layer of carbon there, leaving a very poor/dry joint. Also not using a flashing tape to heat shrink and compress the components would also lead to a substandard joint. Electrical tape won't cut it.