Carbon vs. Ti for racing//Advice on choosing a versatile bike

[Eden]

I have crashed several times on my carbon bike with no damage to the bike (once into a car who turned in front of me.....)

[Miranda]

Here is my road bike that I love

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...ht=candy+sweet


Here is where I crashed my bike I love

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...=century+crash


The bike in that crash ended up getting new bars and stem, which were made of aluminum and got bent; plus wheel trueing... but carbon frame and cages perfect shape.

My first roadie was alum... felt like a tuning fork to ride on chip and seal... ouch. The carbon roadie just sucks that right up. Versus your body. I also have a carbon bar now, and that does help a little more too.

The Orbea Onix is about one pound heavier than the Diva in the frameset... and about $1K less for that reason. If you are buying... do it now... in 2011 Orbea is making some changes to their lines... believe there is no more Diva... just the Onix.

Good luck in your search.

[suzbyrd]

I just bought a brand new Trek Madone 5.1 carbon frame road bike. I had been riding an aluminum frame Giant OCR3. There is absolutely no comparison between the two. The Trek is so much more "quiet". It doesn't bend when I climb. Most road vibrations don't extend up through the handlebars to the upper body. It was amazing moving from a low end road bike to something like the Trek. I feel like I am 100% a better rider from purchasing this new bike. BTW...I also purchased the top line pedals and shoes. This makes a huge difference in performance. I am now wondering why I waited so long to make ths purchase. The difference is extraordinary!

[smilingcat]

I'm sorry but I didn't mean to impune that a carbon frame will break/shatter at first crash. Or more prone to breakage than any other material. Other material are not immune to breakage.

Steel can bend, crack, break. Seen it happen on Bianchi and on my bike.

Aluminum seen it bent out of shape after a crash.

Ti frame seen the down tube crack into two pieces.

Given strong enough impact, all material will fail. Best advice is pick a bikt that fits and is comfortable for you.