Commuting - Help. Spec: what does this mean.

I'm interested in buying a Giant FCR2 and wanted to know what's a "Composite w/aluminum steerer" Fork.

Is that Carbon with aluminum? What exactly is Composite?

Complete specs are here: http://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/030.000.000/030.000.006.asp?model=11328

Thanks in advanced

Heh heh heh . . . chip-board, maybe?

Usually manufacturers that pay to spec carbon-fiber will want to say so, although that is a composite as well.

Heh heh heh . . . chip-board, maybe?

Usually manufacturers that pay to spec carbon-fiber will want to say so, although that is a composite as well.

I'm sorry, not understaning. Is composite the same as Carbon-Fiber yes or no?

All fibre reinforce plastics are composites - a composite of fibre threads (carbon) in a plastic (epoxy) matrix. The most expensive forks are made completely from carbon fibre composite. Cheaper ones use carbon fibre for the actual forks with aluminum for the steerer tube at the top. These might weigh a bit more, but are functionally perfectly good, as the vibration damping (the great quality of CF) happens in the forks.

The legs of the fork are made of Carbon fiber (aka composite), the steerer (basically it's the part the handle bars connect to) is made of aluminum.
Sheldon Brown's definitions: Steerer (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_st-z.html#steerer), fork (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_e-f.html#fork), and composite (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_cn-z.html#composite).

--A

Early carbon fibre forks with aluminum steerers did have some seperation problems (typically at the fork crown) due to galvonic corrosion at the metal/CF interface. These problems have been largely solved by isolating the aluminum from the CF using an inert intermediate material (typically something like mylar) and are no longer a factour provided you're buying a relatively modern fork from a relatively reputable manufacturer.

Thanks everyone for the quick response. That clears up everthing for me. :)