Ok, so I love me some carbon fiber, but steel has some advantages. That and not over-torquing the hell out of every bolt.
Monday morning, a truck made an unsafe left turn in front of me and I nailed the side of the truck. I'm mostly fine except for a really tender shoulder and a sprain/possible tear in my AC joint. Anyhow, this bike. Oh, this bike.
We pick it up (well, he did. I couldn't use my left arm at first.) and immediately, I see that the stem has turned. It's a threadless stem on an adapter and I torque it down enough to not move, but working with carbon all the time, I'm used to not giving it a whole heck of a lot. Well, after the hit it is pretty much at a 90 degree angle to the wheel. I look at the wheel and it's touching the fork. I immediately assume the rim is toast. After a little while, I open the skewer, set it fully in the dropouts and the front wheel is slightly out of true, but definitely not bent. The skewer just moved in the dropouts because I don't make it so tight I have to put a lever behind it to get it open (a personal peeve of mine when we get bikes in the shop like that). And of course, because the stem twisted, the fork didn't take a direct hit and is still straight as an arrow. I also had to turn around my left shift/brake lever that was bent inward. Handlebars still straight as ever.
So while he had to make a claim to get the massive dent and scratches fixed, a few minutes on the truing stand will have my bike perfect. Ok, well, the bar wrap did tear ever so slightly.
Anyhow, more fuel for the steel is real camp, even if I do enjoy some nice CF bikes.