Once you are on the road, the weight it's not very important and aerodynamics it's the main issue. I totally agree with you,
in these terms.
But once you are in a ascent/clive, the overal weight it's very important. And every time you need to desaccelerate and accelerate again, like driving in the city, weight became important.
About carbon fiber, I'm judging in pracvtical ways. The products I saw on videos broke too easily. To me this is enough to say carbon fiber, in real world aplications for non miliomaires consumers, it's a crap.
Sure it's great for Formula-1 driver and for the army, but not much for us.
I bet many people are doing carbon fiber in home, paying a ot, to get a poor finished product. They are not NASA to calculate fiber direction interaction model to a given type of impact or forse, to be suitable to given number of specific aplications.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Automobiles have a very high payload to fuel ratio. Adding a small amount of weight has little impact on the fuel consumed. Add 200lbs to your car and drive 100 miles on the highway, and you won't even be able to tell the difference in fuel consumed. Any fuel consumed going up hill is recaptured coming back down the other side. In fact, moderate hills can be more efficient for driving a petrol car than flat roads (forced pulse and glide).
The higher the ratio of payload to fuel, the less important weight reduction is.
As shown in this forum, aerodynamic improvements are much more effective at improving fuel economy than weight reductions.
As you point out, carbon fiber is strong as long as it is engineered to take advantage of its strengths and avoid its weakness.
How much would a bow rod made of steel weigh? A similar diameter and thickness steel rod could be stronger, but it would also be much heavier.
Most bicycle enthusiasts prefer a carbon fiber front fork both for weight reduction and bump absorption. There are plenty of consumer products where CF is the appropriate material of choice.
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