Bike - In a car?

I presume they mean leaving it in a hot car and if so, I wouldn't know for sure, but I'd be surprised if the temps inside a  hot car (maybe 150F) would cause damage to the cured epoxy and certainly not the carbon fiber. You might get some differential thermal expansion that may stress certain connection points between carbon/epoxy and metals...

Might blow a tube though...

I think leaving it in direct sun light all the time is worse, ive seen peoples finish on carbon mtb bars come off from leaving it outside too much

What about a non-carbon bike? Storing my bike in the house involves negotiating several hairpin turns and stairs without scratching paint on the walls or the bike, which decreases the odds of me getting the bike out as often as I should.

are you guys talking about storing bikes in a car all the time?  like instead of inside a house or garage?  i don't know about the heat, but it sure would suck to get rearended with a multiple thousand $ bike in the trunk, or worse, get your car broken into or stolen. 

Haha.  I could leave a $8000 bike in the back of my open bed pickup truck, and not have it stolen (unless I'm parked at school).  Our criminals are lazy and stealing a bike is on the level of stealing a shovel.  Both represent "work" and won't be touched.

When I worked at a machine shop I swore I played with a blowtorch and some CF (we got bored a lot).  I'm guessing it will be fine inside a car.  I've left my bike inside a car before but it only has CF seat post and forks.

AHAHAHA that's awesome. My home in the States is the exact opposite of that - people steal every and anything they can, sometimes even if they don't know what it. If it is left outside, it's fair game.

I had a tough ride on Tuesday and forgot my bike outside overnight.... Just very glad it was still there!

AHAHAHA that's awesome. My home in the States is the exact opposite of that - people steal every and anything they can, sometimes even if they don't know what it. If it is left outside, it's fair game.

Epoxy is a thermoset. Once it is cured nothing below that temperature will affect it. As long as the car temperature doesn't get above that cure temperature you are fine. Typical cure for that type of carbon epoxy is somewhere in the 250F range.That would have to be one heck of a hot car.

Edited by sand101 2009-07-23 10:49 PM