Yep, alum is like riding with a tuning fork vibrating going thru your body. Carbon sucks the road up. Personally I'm considering alum only as a back up bike for shorter rides with the fm, not any major riding (just for something cheap). Yes, the shop can check for carbon damage. Fwiw, I crashed my carbon which 360 flipped over on top of me (my body didn't fair so well) and my frame fine. The alum spokes needed trued, and alum bars bent, but all carbon a-ok, stronger than you might think. Good luck.