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Now we're going to talk about bicycle frames. There's many different bicycle frames and
also many different materials that the bicycle frames are out made of. If you walk into your
local bike store and you look up on their wall, they probably have bicycle frames that
are made out of this, which is aluminum. It's probably one of the most common. Carbon fiber,
which is pretty new, and steel. Those are the three main types of frame materials.
A lot of people think that steel is really, really heavy because you see those old heavy
three speeds. Actually steel can be very, very light. It can be lighter that some carbon
fiber bikes. Also aluminum can be lighter than steel. It just depends on what type of
material it's made out of. There's higher qualities of steel, and higher qualities of
aluminum, and as well as carbon.
Some things that you want to look at with your bicycle frames, you want to make sure
that you're maintaining it properly. You want to clean your bicycle to make sure they can
see if there's any imperfections in your frame. Sometimes if you get in an accident, or you
have a collision, you may have a crack in your frame.
A lot of times what happens is right here on the head tube, it cracks right here on
the head tube, it cracks. It may crack underneath here and it may crack at the bottom bracket
shell. Those are the most common spots for it to crack. Especially if it's a carbon fiber
frame, and it's a very light weight carbon fiber frame. Those tend to crack more often.
The lifespan of a carbon fiber frame is much less than a steel frame. A steel frame can
last you a lifetime. A carbon fiber could last you three years.
Also if you do get in a collision, especially a front-end collision. We see a lot of bicycles
come in the shop that get a front-end collision and what happens is it crimps right here.
The frame will actually crimp up right here, and you actually feel like a big lip on the
frame and usually you can see it. It looks like the fork is pushed back. That's really
dangerous. What could happen is there's a lot of forces on the actual fork pulling this
way as you hit bumps. So it could actually pull off the front-end eventually, which is
really dangerous.
You also want to make sure that your frame is not bent, so making sure that the fork
arms look straight. Make sure that the back-end looks straight, and make sure that the wheels
look like they are sitting in straight. They could be out of dish if they're not sitting
in straight. But they could also be that the frame is bent.
If you have any imperfections in your frame you either want to get it fixed or replaced
as soon as possible, because it could lead to your frame failing and then you falling
on the ground and hurting yourself. You want to make sure that you're constantly checking
over your frame and making sure that it doesn't have any imperfections.