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Carbon Fiber Suppliers List

72K views 490 replies 98 participants last post by  TheSloMoShow 
#1 · (Edited)
I often get asked where I got this or that carbon part from...so I 'm starting a list of addresses of Carbon Fibre manufacturers, suppliers and Ebay sites.

And I think a rating of 1 to 5 (5 being the most perfect quality) would help. Some of the lower rated companies provide a fine product for less money, and should be considered.

Please add to the list, no matter how small or low volume the company is. Some companies may only make a couple of parts that no other company may make.

www.motoworks.co.jp 5

www.cleverwolfracing.co.jp 5

www.dynomite.co.uk 4-5

www.bst.com 5

www.worldofqbcarbon.co.uk 4-5

www.bestem.com ?

www.geelongcarboncraft.com.au 4

www.powerbronze.co.uk 3-4

www.tekarbon.com 3-4

wwww.dashlite.com 3
 
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#368 ·
Very sad....the best cf bodywork on the market. :(
 
#370 ·
There have been a lot of bad experiences posted on here, with Crownmoto.

Mix and matching isn't a problem if you stick to the same weave. "Plain" weave CF is the most common, every company makes it. "Twill" weave is less common, but most companies are starting to do it. Just make sure you specify clearly what you want, when you order.

I have CF from about 7 different companies on my bike.

 
#372 ·
Oi Ben...... wanna sell your tail & lowers?

:crash :crash :crash moooohahahahahaha

:hammer:






Have you seen my tail and lowers lately?...:cryin
 
#375 ·
Fuvk man :(

I'm sad I never got to own any dynomite I can only imagine how you feel. :( once you've had the best its harder to downgrade... I'll never know the difference so it will be easier.

So who's second best for tails and lowers?
 
#376 ·
that is literally... physically painful to see again.... sorry benzo :(
 
#377 ·
Ah well...shit happens eh lads? At least I was fvcking cooking when I lost it! :lol

I'm going to try Green Crown because a mate here in Adelaide is the Aus distributor, and if it's shite he'll put it on his 05.
 
#378 ·
Good point at least you were using her for what she's does best.

I'm thinking to try OPP's cf SBK style tail with a foam pad when I get the $. I just want massive weight loss.... The stock seat is around 800g alone.

Let me know what you think of Green Crown... they could be a possiblity if I come to my senses and realise I'm getting to old for a foam pad. :crash
 
#383 ·
I feel exactly the same Ron. No one can replace Matt's attention to detail...
 
#382 ·
Now where can buy cf parts beside magical racing?
 
#384 · (Edited)
I have a mate in South Aus who's become the distributor for Green Crown Carbon, he's been trying to get some of his gear onto my bike for some time now. He has their tail, front guard and airbox cover on his 04, pictured on his site. Another mate has their front guard, undertail and inner fairing gills on his 10.

I've looked into the company and here's what I've found out. They're Chinese, they use metal molds and vacuum bagging to produce a very accurate shape. They autoclave the parts to get a strong finished product. They make the part to order, according to your specifications, they keep nothing in stock. They will make the part in fibreglass, kevlar & fibreglass, kevlar & carbon, fibreglass & carbon, or pure carbon. They will do plain, twill and coloured carbon, and they'll do matt or gloss finish. They will lay the weave in a certain direction if you ask them to. They have everything but the tank for an 04-06 R1, even though they don't list it on their site. So you need to ask if they have what you want.



Since I crashed and wiped out half my cf stuff, and Dynomite is no longer producing :(, I thought I'd give him a shot. I ordered some small but tricky stuff first. I imagine these parts would be difficult to make, and very few companies make them...they're the mid fairing inserts.


The surface is great, the weave is straight and the gloss isn't massively thick, like you tend to get on cheap CF.






This part is fibreglass backed, and is neatly done with a minimum of resin.




All the rubbers and clips fit straight on without any modification of the holes.




And the part lined up with the holes and surfaces of the frame, with no pulling or twisting needed to put the fasteners in.




Floyd was there, offering his help as per usual...





Unfortunately my upper fairing, whole left side and tail are trashed, so I can't go any further. But looking at the part side by side with the OEM one, all the holes for the side and lower fairings look to be spot on. These parts were $160 + freight, I've asked for a quote for the left side lower fairing, in pure twill, with the weave 45 degrees from horizontal. It will be quite some time until I receive it, but I'll let you know what I think.

Simon is the guy, (and he's a nice bloke, so be nice:))

site- ://www.greencrowncarbon.com.au/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Crown-Carbon/336691513008721
 
#385 ·
Nice. :)

I did have a pdf cataloge and price list but can't find it now damnit. :lol

Edit: would a OE vs carbon weight be asking to much? :D
 
#386 ·
My OEM ones are wrapped in CF...badly... So they're about 10 times heavier than these ones! :shake
 
#388 ·
Hey Ben, not that I'm an expert yet, but I'm dipping into it and my first go had promising results. I just need to get some stretchy vacuum bag or mold some pressure intensifiers to get it to put better pressure in the corners. Those parts actually look like they have really thick clear coats or lots of excess resin compared to what came out of my mold. Mine don't have a clear coat on them (these were a trial run) but they came out with a pretty smooth surface straight from the mold, so i wouldn't need a thick layer of clear at all. I'm using resin infusion which makes the strongest and lightest CF laminates. I'll get pic in a minute. I'm using my phone right now and need to get on my computer.
 
#389 ·
Here are the pics. These are only a trial run, and the resin you see around the edges is where the fiber wasn't sitting against the mold. I think I'm going to go with an insert to make it imitate a two piece mold to press the fiber against the mold. I may even get some small CF sleeve and mold the screw recesses with a separate piece. I only used two layers to check out the strength I get with that, and I think I'm going to stick with two layers. It's EXTREMELY light. I put some pretty hard pressure to try to bend it in half and it's pretty damn strong. Resin infusion is the sh!t! You can see it's well under half the weight of the plastic piece it will be replacing, and it still has all the excess fabric that hasn't been trimmed off.

As of now I'm only going to be making parts for the 2012 S1000RR (cause that's what I have) but will probably get into the R1 cause that's my next favorite, but it will be dependent on donor bikes to get my molds made. I was keen on getting some molds from Dynomite, but I'm not paying 100 pounds for each mold. I'd be better off buying a whole set of plastics and making my own molds, but I'm sure I could borrow some off someone instead.





 

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#390 ·
Damn that came out bloody nice for your first try!

If you're interested in making small brackets for my 04 let me know. :fact I was going to get a start up kit next winter and have a play but a lot of $$$ for just a few small things no one makes and I'm not looking to make a hobby out of it. I could send you a handful of little brackets that you could keep for moulds ( I'd source more off ebay as I've lightened mine heaps with a dremel already).

Nice scales by the way, I have the same ones. :lol
 
#393 · (Edited)
What type of bracket is the one with the nuts? Do you know if you can get away with nylon nuts? I'm guessing it would probably need to be more substantial than nylon. I'm just considering options other than adding stainless steel nuts. Titanium would get expensive. I am considering trying to incorporate some of the JB Weld putty, which I have seen you can put screws into. Just mold a small reservoir and insert the screw with some anti-seize, and then put the putty in there for the threads instead of putting a epoxying nuts on there. Also if it ever needs to get redone, just drill it out with a dremel and add more putty.

Oh and I wouldn't need to remove the nuts. I only really need to mold the mating surface which is where the dimensions would need to be the same.
 
#394 ·
You guessed right, the one with the nuts its the upper heat shield bracket (lower one has captive nuts also) so nylon would melt I think. The first one without nuts is for the bottom of the regulator to subframe (the top of the reg bolts to the battery box and I've lightened the bracket there also but that ones not worth making in cf... Pretty light as is and a lot of angles etc going on in a tight space.

I'd be happy to buy the Ti... I have a massive list anyway just working up the courage to hit 'buy now'. :scared
 
#397 ·
Sweet, thanks a lot. The only issue I need to tackle at the moment is getting the bag to sit right on the part. If it were a larger fairing I would have an easier time. It's just getting enough slack in the bag to sit fully over the two bumps was a pain, and with the tape exposed, if you let any of the trailing bag touch, it's pretty much screwed. I probably should have had my wife helping me hold the bag as I laid it haha. Also, lesson learned: Don't apply PVA where you are going to apply the bagging tape. it holds fine until you get just a little of the PVA pulled up, then it's completely screwed and have to remove and reapply the PVA. It took me about 2 days to work out how I wanted to build my flanges, and I ended up getting some thin plastic board (about 0.5mm thick) that is flexible yet firm, and I gut them to the approximate shape and used hot glue to affix it to the part, then used modeling clay to fill in the gaps. The plastic board I am using is perfect cause the epoxy doesn't stick to it. I don't even need to wax it. I am going to go with some silicone sealant instead of the clay in the edges because the clay tends to be a pain to clean up.

Here was my very first attempt at a mold. It actually came out really good except the fiberglass pulled away from some of the tight radii and left air pockets. I was going to redo the mold, but I think I am going to make some "good enough" repairs to this one and make a FG plug from it, make some changes to the little vents for an aftermarket look, then make a final mold from that.

The airbox cover with flange, then after the gelcoat is applied:




First layer of glass:
 
#398 ·
Don't mean to be a bitch at all....but how about a new thread for your adventures? :sneaky
 
#399 ·
Didn't mean to side track this one. I don't really want to make too much of a noise about it. It's technically part of my "business" so I can't be advertising anything before I become a sponsor if I choose to do that. I meant to be only making custom exhausts, but I looked into the CF laminating to make my own silencer sleeves and end caps and thought if I'm going to be doing that the correct way, I can use the same equipment and do other parts. If I get into R1 pieces I'll probably opt to pay the sponsor fees so I could advertise on here, but it would be very low volume as it's a side business and I still work a full time job.
 
#400 ·
I think you should open a new how to thread?
 
#401 ·
wise :epimp
 
#403 ·
The fiberglass is my specialty BFA. Worked in a fiberglass boat shop in high school and continue to work with it all the time for work. Its a requirement to get good at it in this business. Everything we use is glass. I don't know how its priced in Australia but there about 30 local suppliers so we buy resin and gel coat dirt cheap by the 50 gal drum

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Motorcycle.com Free App
 
#404 ·
I would say they molding principles are exactly the same. I used only epoxy resins though as opposed to the polyester ones that are common with FG. I am not too savvy yet, but epoxy gelcoat is supposed to be sh!t to work with and hasn't really been perfected. I use an additive to the epoxy and a dye to make my gelcoat. I don't understand the difference really but my supplier said even the manufacturers of epoxy tooling gelcoats don't recommend using it. I haven't really been paying too much attention on what I've been spending, but I ahve all my receipts and will go through them shortly to see what my cost would be for making the parts so I can figure out a good amount to charge. I am looking at using reusable silicone bags , but they are almost double the price for the kit in Aus than in the US.
 
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