Re: Wal-Mart Italian Road Bike for $1198

On Mon, 5 May 2008 06:50:16 -0700 (PDT), Chalo
<chalo.colina@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Tom Sherman wrote:
>>
>> Chalo Colina wrote:
>> >
>> > Madone frames, like all CFRP frames, are made from charred
>> > polyacrylonitrile resin-- that's plastic, by the way-- in a matrix of
>> > epoxy resin.  Which is, y'know, plastic.  Plastic is the least
>> > marketing-termish thing you could call them.
>>
>> I thought plastic referred to non-recoverable deformation, not a
>> material type. The correct term is polymer.
>
>Almost every plastic material is not a single polymer, but a mixture
>of polymer resins along with fillers to modify the properties of the
>resin mixture.  So you could say, "filled copolymer" most of the time,
>specifying a filled single-resin polymer or unfilled polymers or
>copolymers as the material dictates, or you could call them all
>"plastics", just as the term "metal" refers equally to alloys, pure
>metallic elements, unmixed combinations, or metal-matrix composites.
>
>My point is just that characterizing a frame as being made from
>"carbon fiber" is like saying another one is made from "scandium".
>Both are actually composed mostly of other substances, and the most
>generic terms for those mixtures are respectively "plastic" and
>"metal".
>
>Chalo


You know, with that kind of attitude you are NEVER going to get a job
in marketing.