There are two schools of opinion that I have absolutely no time for:

1. "Why are you riding that old crap? Bikes are so much better today."
2. "Steel is real. Carbon fiber is, at best, garbage."

(For the record, I firmly believe in the first part of statement #2, and nastily disagree with the second.)

The bottom line, no matter what theoretical claims are made regarding carbon fiber frames (and in the context of this forum, those claims are usually 98% negative as hell), we have absolutely no idea how a 40 year old carbon fiber frame is going to stand up. Mainly because there aren't any 40 year old carbon fiber frames out there - yet. And those that are approaching that age are nothing more than traditional look bicycles with carbon frame tubes glued/pinned into aluminum lugs. (Hmmn, I've noticed that nobody here ever complains about THOSE bikes - could it be because they still look like what we consider a bicycle should be?)

Like it or not, some carbon bikes are going to survive, unwrecked, most likely cared for (at least) 40-50 years from now. Assuming there's still an interest in bicycles (not necessarily a given), somebody out there is going to collect them as antiques. And some of those bikes will have a more desirable reputation than others. Those will be the collectibles.

That's going to be the worry of those who are in this forum, and are currently 15-25 years old. The rest of us can blather on all we want. It's not going to be our worry - barring some massive improvement in the human life span in the next ten years.