Most unattainable Bling is now mine..........Carbon Swing Arm

[ducducgooseme]

negative on the 5 year wheel shelf life.   BST baby!! 

[scott_araujo]

The only thing I could think of is if carbon starts to photo degrade over time.  Most things that do that have a UV resistant clear coat.

Scott

[Speeddog]

AFAIK, on composite parts, it's not the fibers that degrade, it's the resin.

[scott_araujo]

Correct.

[ducpainter]

Because the resin in c/f is epoxy and epoxy is not suitable for UV exposure.

If you want your c/f to last clear it with a urethane/polyurethane.

[ducducgooseme]

Nate is old and wise...so listen to him.

but mostly he is old 

[ducpainter]

Nate is old and wise...so listen to him.

but mostly he is old 

John is young, dumb, and full o'cum...

but mostly dumb...

ignore him.

[ducducgooseme]

See, old and grumpy 

But yes, this time, you hit the nail right on the head. 

[Case S2R]

Carbon does not have a shelf life

Basic Generalities...
Most/all metals have a fatigue life, meaning they will get weaker over time and are constantly trying to go back into their natural state (corrosion).
Composites do not have a fatigue life, meaning under normal use they do not weaken over time
UV light will degrade carbon and resin but, any good carbon is coated with a high quality clear coat which blocks UV light.  Check for yellowing or corrosion on any hardware.
Carbon is laid up in layers and in most structural applications the top layer (woven) is cosmetic and UV light does not pass through to the structural layers of carbon.
Galvanic corrosion is a larger issue than UV degradation, once again check for corrosion on all metal, especially Aluminum hardware embedded in the carbon, Titanium is always preferred.

Summary...
Your carbon swingarm will not break because it is old, it will break from some other reason.  If it was built by someone that knows what they are doing (and it probably was) you should have no worry's.

Case

[yotogi]

Summary...
Your carbon swingarm will not break because it is old, it will break from some other reason.  If it was built by someone that knows what they are doing (and it probably was) you should have no worry's.

You would think he was some kind of carbon fiber specialist. 

[duccarlos]

You would think he was some kind of carbon fiber specialist. 

Doesn't having tons on CF on your make you an expert?

[yotogi]

Perhaps, but I was thinking of the extremely trick CF bikes (non-moto) that he makes. That, and he lives close to me and I like to grief him.