Carbon vs. Titanium?

[ny biker]

‘An all carbon bike could get destroyed easier than Ti” was in the back of my mind when I made my decision.

Yeah that too. When it comes time to replace my road bike, I will look into Ti before another carbon frame. I paid about $500 to repair a crack on the top tube of my carbon bike, and now worry about it falling over more than I did with the old aluminum one.

[north woods gal]

My only experience with a Ti bike was a Moots mountain bike that a fellow mountain biker let me take out for trail ride, one day. Since my favorite frame has always been steel, I loved it. Has a similar ride quality but is even more bombproof than steel, if such a thing is possible.

If you're trying to add that last fraction of a mph to your average speed or squeeze max efficiency out of your bike with every pedal stroke, I think carbon is still the way to go. Definitely the lighter frame by the time you beef up the Ti to specs.

On long road rides on pavement, though, I much prefer a steel bike to my carbon Trek Domane 4.3. The carbon Trek rides butter smooth and I love how light it is, but I have less feel for the road with it than with a steel bike and, yet, when it comes time for handling road cracks, the steel doesn't hurt as much. Go figure. I suspect titanium would be similar. I think it would be the comfort and durability choice.

[Crankin]

I agree about the feel of ti (and steel), but I've had 3 carbon bikes and I am not someone who is "gentle" with my bikes. I've had crashes, too and never had any issues.
Weight doesn't matter to me, but when I got my ti bike, it did take me awhile to match my speed to that on my carbon bike. At that point, it could have been getting used to the compact double, as my carbon bike at that point still had a triple. Now that both my bikes have the same gearing, it's not really different, except for the fact, I have my Arkel trail pack on my ti bike sometimes, or a pannier!