Lavedamania

[Paddy]

I was very interested to see the carbon fibre products offered by Laverdamania, is their a preferred or UK outlet for these. Has anyone had these items sprayed and is there any pro's and con's for them over plastic ?
Cheers 

 

[Rob]

The CF items are merely being promoted on Laverdamania, J-LO's website.  The guy that produces them is Boba on this site - lighter than GRP, easily sprayed (but wonder why you'd pay the premium for CF instead of ordering in GRP and spraying that?).  Plenty of posts and pics on here - you can PM or email Boba for full details of what he offers

 

[Dean Brown]

There are regular contributors to this forum, Grant being one, who are familiar with Boba's work and speak very highly of it.  I have a FG seat unit on order from him via Grant.  Bobq speaks good English so drop him a PM.

 

[Paddy]

Ok , thanks for leads guys. New to Lavs and finding parts on line a bit of a struggle. I'm going to need  headlamp brackets but cant quite get over the price of the three piece items. after Bevel duke stuff.

 

[motoddrob]

The CF items are merely being promoted on Laverdamania, J-LO's website.  The guy that produces them is Boba on this site - lighter than GRP, easily sprayed (but wonder why you'd pay the premium for CF instead of ordering in GRP and spraying that?).  Plenty of posts and pics on here - you can PM or email Boba for full details of what he offers

Hi Rob, whether you paint it or not the CF product is far superior than FG in many regards. Also you wont end up with the fractures or crazing that gel coat suffers from. Epoxy resin is much stronger than polyester resin as well as fuel resistant if it's used for a tank.

 

[Paddy]

Hi Rob, whether you paint it or not the CF product is far superior than FG in many regards. Also you wont end up with the fractures or crazing that gel coat suffers from. Epoxy resin is much stronger than polyester resin as well as fuel resistant if it's used for a tank.

This was my thinking, the bike came with a pair of new CF side panels that seem  superior in every way to the FG stuff i have seen. Its seemed to make sense to add the tail inner and outer as i prefer the 180 look to the current 120 affair. Needless to say i want to lose the fairing as well.  I have the clocks and clock rings and bar mount, just need headlamp brackets and some jota bars as it has gold commanders on it at the moment. I'm sure there will be lots of other parts, i have a rear stainless mudguard but not the light fittings or indicators yet. Its a winter project so plenty of time.

 

[Dellortoman]

Has anyone pranged with the CF body parts on the bike? I'm just wondering how well CF stands up to crash damage. If I drop my bike is the tank going to burst open and turn into a huge fireball? I've seen CF spinnaker poles on yachts break. When they go they often explode into a million bits like shattered glass.

 

[motoddrob]

Has anyone pranged with the CF body parts on the bike? I'm just wondering how well CF stands up to crash damage. If I drop my bike is the tank going to burst open and turn into a huge fireball? I've seen CF spinnaker poles on yachts break. When they go they often explode into a million bits like shattered glass.

Cam, I found laminated carbon fibre quite brittle. Having said that, it was only 2-3 layers thick and was natural cure, no hi-tech in my shed!
I believe it's main quality is tensile strength. I'd be happy to no more if anyone is knowledgeable on the subject.
With the tanks I made I went carbon, carbon, Kevlar, carbon. I also added extra pieces to the obvious impact areas plus where I nipped and tucked it got double up again in the natural folds. The Kevlar will not snap like the carbon did so technically on impact the Kevlar should hold the carbon together. It may fracture but I doubt it will hole.
I'm not a chemical engineer so what would I know
Hope I never find out

 

[ludiluka]

Has anyone pranged with the CF body parts on the bike? I'm just wondering how well CF stands up to crash damage. If I drop my bike is the tank going to burst open and turn into a huge fireball? I've seen CF spinnaker poles on yachts break. When they go they often explode into a million bits like shattered glass.

I'm doing some carbon fiber parts mostly for ducati. If you want safe carbon fiber tank you need inside layer from kevlar (i usualy use 2 layers of pure kevlar) next layer from carbon- kevlar  cloth (same two layers) and outside layers from carbon fiber.

full carbon tanks are dangerous. (well they can be save if you put lot of layers of carbon but than your tank will be heavy.) 

Tanks like mine are a lot safer because i use carbon for look and stiffness and kevlar for flexibility (kevlar doesn't crack like carbon fibre  )  so you can smash tank with sledge hammer carbon will crack but kevlar won't

 

[Ludi Boba]

My apologies I have just seen the thread.  Must admit that I have not been too active on the forum lately, but here I am again.

To illustrate the topic here are some photos of a damaged tank. The tank comes from the Team Lavergnac's "Renata" race bike.

You can see that it is scratched and cracked but remained in one piece. The extent of the damage along the top left edge suggest the tank was sliding on the tarmac.

My tanks are reinforced but I am not willing to discuss the details. One would have to buy a tank an cut it open to find out how.