Carbon fiber could revolutionize transportation as we know it. Although there is less novelty to carbon fiber these days, there is much excitement in that it is becoming increasingly more affordable. The most notable characteristic of carbon fiber is its ability to be extremely strong and durable, yet be lighter than aluminum. As seen in the picture above, even a young girl can lift a carbon fiber bike--as it comes in at around eleven pounds.
So why do we care? There are a couple of reasons. First, carbon is an abundant element and easily accessible. This means less Earth plundering for expensive and scarce resources. Second, many people are hesitant to take up bicycling because of the bothersome task in lugging the bike around. Carbon bikes could encourage a switch from gas guzzling cars to an environmentally friendly alternative, simply because a lighter bike is easier to justify an investment in. Are these the bikes of our future? At eleven pounds, they certainly have my vote.
Article and picture found here: http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/10-pound-carbon-fiber-bike-shows-us-glimpse-future.html
That is really cool! Yes I can see people buying them. I hated dragging my heavy bike up and down stairs of my apartment and I didn't want to leave it outside all year long so I didn't have much of a choice. I'm going to look into them, thanks for article.
ReplyDeleteCool article. I am an avid biker myself and I think anything we can do to promote bicycling is a good thing. Sometimes I think people forget that producing a bicycle takes resources from the Earth just like producing any other product, even if bikes are considered more of a 'green' product. So it would be good if more people were buying bikes made of carbon fiber instead of steel or aluminum.
ReplyDeletethis is super cool, and the best part is that it is totally practical. I ride bike a lot and I would love to see something like this out on the market. I do road bike races and a light pro road bike can be thousands of dollars, granted I'm not sure how much this would cost but carbon has to be cheaper than anything else. So I would definitely buy that.
ReplyDeleteAfter one semester of dealing with a cumbersome bike, I put a carbon fiber bike on my Christmas wish list. However, coming from a family with more bikes than people, it made more sense to swap my heavier bike with my mom's lighter bike. It wasn't carbon fiber, but at least it wasn't using any more resources to make the change.
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