Carbon fiber tie rods

[Jon Romenesko]

Anyone else seen these on eBay?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220977668107

Kind of tempted to buy a pair and test them out to satisfy my own curiosity, but that's a $100 experiment. I doubt they would be legal in any org out there. Surely they would be stiffer than a standard aluminum tie rod, but I'd be afraid to see what might happen in a crash.

Any thoughts on these? They make carbon seat struts too.
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GP10/CR125
S2 Semi-Pro Stock Moto - SKUSA Rocky Mountain ProKart Challenge

http://theslipangle.com/

"When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after...it's just waiting"
--Steve McQueen, LeMans

[TJ Koyen]

"Never bend another tie rod"

Instead, just shatter them! I've finished many a race with a bent tie-rod. If those races were with carbon fiber tie-rods, I'd have been sitting on the sideline picking carbon splinters out of my suit.

What's the point? There can't be that much weight to be saved there.
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T.J. Koyen
OKTANE VISUAL - Custom Helmet Paint & Graphic Design
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DB Motorsports
Exprit/Leopard

[Jon Romenesko]

[Jim McMahon]

Ive used nylon-type fibre rods in rental karts, but I think CF could be dangerous. Often stress cracks and other faults occur with CF that are not detectable by eye. Typically sonography is involved. That's one of the reasons we use "conventional" metals, you can visually inspect them for defects. You can't do this reliably with CF. If you look at the regs for some of the series of motorsport that allow CF, especially ones that allow older cars with suspension parts that are several years old. They often require a certificate of inspection in order to race.
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[Walt Gifford]

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[Chris Reinhardt]