Sports

Carbon fiber is used in many sports mainly because of its low defection (high rigidity), high strength, and light weight. In tennis it is used in racquet handles because it is so light, strong, and has high vibration dampening abilities. It is used in high-end golf club handles and ski poles, because of its light weight but also because it is so tough. It was even used in Michael Jordan’s last NBA shoes to help distribute the force of landing after a jump, across the entire sole of the shoe. Carbon fiber is also starting to be used in many modern down-hill skis and snowboards where light weight and high strength are required.

But possibly the sport that has most felt the impact of carbon fiber is bicycling, both off-road and on. Carbon fiber is now used for the construction of everything from the frame to the fork tube spacers (rings that fit around the fork tube between the frame and the handlebars). One of the reasons that the use of carbon fiber is growing so rapidly is that the cost (both for the manufacturer and for the consumer) has been coming down steadily for the past few years. Here is a picture of a carbon fiber road-racing bicycle made by Lotus, a company that also uses carbon fiber in its motorcars and in its down-hill “soap box” racers, some of which cost more than $100,000.00.