Dear Mr. Silver,

It used to be that nick in the carbon frame meant the end, but these days things are so much better that a minor scratch or nick does not impare the frame whatso ever.

Now having said that, if you are prone to slow speed fall, you might consider steel or titanium. Steel can be reworked, titanium is like a spring so it flexes and pops back to its original shape. None for the wear.

Aluminum frame with its over sized tube, I'm not too terribly sure how it fares in slow speed crash.

Then there are Metal Matrix composite boron nitride matrixed into aluminum (you'll only find it in Griffen bike from Austin Tx was it). probably can't be reworked? or Calfee is developing a bike for the third world country. Its to be made from locally available material mostly bamboo for the frame. How neat is that!!

just my highly opinionated comment regarding frame material.

I'm partial to Ti 3Al/2.5V tubes. The more stiffer Ti tubing using 6AL/4V tends to suffer from stress fracture and cracking. So stay away from the super stiff Ti tube using the 6AL/4V composition.

smilingcat