Made myself a carbon fiber bash guard from some mil grade carbon I came across. It's about 45grams and 1/8 thick Have some material left and was wondering if any of you might be intersted. It's 104Bcd, 34T(i think) Check it out and let me know what you think.
a few more details Yes, it does replace the large chainring. I never use it anyway and you get more ground clearance over the logs or other terrain. Slides over stuff rather well, not having any sharp teeth. ) Well this post is kind of a poor mans survey to find out if there is enough interest out there for this thing. If there is, I'll be glad to place an order with the local machine shop and have a few of these puppies made. The material I have is limited however. I think, I have enough for 10-15 bashguards. Not sure how to set up this post as a survey? Maybe start a ride and use it as a survey? Any thoughts? Please ask any questions you can think of. I'll do my best to answer. Not sure yet what the price will be. It'll probably depend on the total quantity. More = cheaper per unit cost. Thanks for your interest so far. Let's see how this plays out. Cheers!
you'd have to hit something pretty hard to shatter You'd have to hit pretty hard to shatter it. I've banged it up pretty good and it's still on the bike. My main concern has been keeping the weight down. And then you got the bling factor. We can't ignore that. ) I'm sure it'll hold up to some heavy abuse without shattering.
Dang, that thing is sweet. I'm thinking about an upgrade this summer though so I would have to wait to see if it would fit...if I needed a different size, could I send you a drawing for you to have the shop make to? Or would you have to have the whole run be exactly the same? Then again, I'm still new with bikes and I don't know how common different sizes are...
One issue I had with removing my outer ring was the bolts that hold the rings together. They were not short enough to pinch it tight, so I had to put in spacers. Do all rings call for the same width? I would imagine it so.
Current design is 104BCD At the moment, I only intend to get the 104BCD, 4bolt as I have this design completed. If more requests arrise, I may consider doing the 5bolt. As far as thickness goes, this guard is intended to exactly replace the large chainring up front. So far I have only one made and installed on my XT shimano crankset as shown in the pic. Cheers,
The one thing that could happen is that the carbon can delaminate where it is cut. You can sand and seal the edges with CA glue and that should help out.
I'm sure I could help you out If you run out of material, just send me a PM with thickness and min dia. needed. Some times I'll have copious amounts of carbon off-cuts laying around the shop depending on what project we are working on. IT'S your's free for the taking:beer: PS THERE IS GOOD REASON WHY I RIDE AN ALUMINUM BIKE
Not trying to poo poo your project but I'm not sure carbon fiber is the best material for a bash guard.
dont be such a buzzkill...carbon is the rage. you know how it goes...if you cant make it better, make it with carbon