Quote Originally Posted by moderncyclista View Post
*waves hands in front of self*

I asked my LBS, that's what they said. They don't sell too many cyclocross bikes - mostly road bikes. They never carry touring bikes in stock - so perhaps they didn't think of this. All I'm saying is what "I" wouldn't do. That is all. Take it or leave it.

I haven't made my distrust of carbon a "secret", to that end -
http://www.bustedcarbon.com/
http://www.bustedcarbon.com/2008_11_01_archive.html
How did I know the "busted carbon" website would come up? Almost ALL of those photos are from crashes, races, and severely UNDERestimated circumstances; most if not all of which would leave a similarly designed (function, weight, etc) aluminum or steel bike severely damaged as well. Be the bike carbon, steel, or aluminum it seems all failures happen while "just riding along"...BS!

Yes, there's some design defects and recall cases in there too. I can start naming off busted Aluminum from poor design and recalls as well if you'd like....

It boils down to this:
You crash a bike at 30 mph and I don't care what it is; chances are you broke something.

You race a bike and I don't care what it is; eventually you will break it.

You run a bike into your garage door and it doesn't matter what it is; it's toast (yea, a lot of those on busted carbon as well...)

You use a bike outside of it's design specifications and yup, eventually you will break it (that includes ignoring or pushing the rider weight limits that are on LOTS of those lightweight road racing forks and wheels...which can be as low as 150-160 lbs...yup, there's a lot of THAT on busted carbon as well...)

You ignore assembly instructions and, you guessed it, the part is going to eventually fail catastrophically on you (lots of that on busted carbon, some actually admit it...)

You ride a company's prototype or first gen. product and you are taking a certain amount of risk.

From an engineering standpoint there is NOTHING inferior about carbon (or do you not get on airplanes either?). IF one chooses to purchase a no holds barred, ultralight, racing frame one must understand that certain sacrifices were made to get it that way (whether it be steel, aluminum, or carbon). BUT not all carbon bikes are ultralight race bikes anymore. Plenty of companies that are taking longterm strength and structural integrity into account now for the bikes marketed to the masses; instead of just weight (or lack thereof). They are now making downhill mountain bikes out of the stuff; no one's breaking them and no one's complaining.

End lesson:
Regardless of material...Buy the bike designed for your use. Don't expect a "cheap" ($1000 or so frame only), "lightest in class" frame to also be the most durable.

People that buy lightweight race bikes and expect them to hold up to riding/abuse/crashes like a touring bike or even a mountain bike would are going to be sorely disappointed. They weren't designed to. And it doesn't matter what the material is (people used to complain about the weak pathetic ALUMINUM race bikes too...).

Believe the internet nonsense if you'd like, but don't make it seem as if ANY carbon bike is going to fall out from under you at the sight of a pothole. That's absurd and doesn't happen even with the lightest of light frames on anywhere NEAR a regular basis.