Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics — Trendsetting Material for High Performance Racing Bike Chassis

Abstract

The sports and leisure area is an extensive field of application for fiber reinforced plastics (FRP). The remarkable material and manufacturing properties like high stiffness and strength at low density, corrosion and chemical resistance as well as the possibility to realize complex geometrical shapes exceed the possibilities of conventional structural materials, like metals. While a few decades ago steel was substituted by aluminum as chassis material for racing bikes primarily due to the considerably lower density, nowadays, FRP, and therein especially carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), appear to be the trend setting material nowadays. The application of FRP in load bearing structures, such as bike chassis, is more complex and demands a very close interaction between all disciplines involved in the development process such as material science, design, manufacturing and testing. This paper intends to highlight the potential of CFRP for ultra-light chassis applications in an adequate structural design by considering the Canyon Carbon Ultimate F10 racing bike chassis as one of today’s lightest and stiffest racing bike chassis worldwide. After a brief introduction into FRP and CFRP a comparison of the anisotropic CFRP with conventional isotropic metals is shown. An overview of the requirements for road and racing bike chassis is given and results of finite element design analyses are presented to show the influence of the lay-up configuration on the frame stiffness. Finally, a comparison with the leading aluminum and CFRP racing bike chassis shows an outstanding lightweight quality of the developed frame which proves the ultra-light weight potential of CFRP in the racing bike chassis sector.