@Sunyata 126207 wrote:
From a frame standpoint, in order to maintain aerodynamics, you would still have to have a solid outer shell. It does not make any sense to fill an already light carbon fiber tube (or panel in the case of aero bikes) with another substance if the outer shell is already strong enough for the task at hand.
You need a shell around this stuff anyway, it’s not intended to be structural in itself. In theory you could get weight savings by reducing the thickness of the current frame tube and filling it with a light supporting matrix instead. (Like birds’ bones.) The issue is that in context, to get the weight savings, you’d have a shell that was so thin that it would be damaged by normal contact. Think paper-thin–you’d have a tube that was light, strong enough to support the load of forces applied in the normal manner, but capable of being crushed in your hand. We’re already at that point for steel frames: the weight limit these days comes from the fact that if the tubes get any thinner they’re too easy to dent, even though they’re strong enough to support the expected load.
.
