I can see my bikes just fine when I'm riding them. Maybe you just aren't looking in the right direction.

But I rode carbon bikes when the concept of carbon bikes was brand new. And frankly, the only thing those bikes offered was light weight. In pretty much every other way, they sucked. So there's a part of my brain that still expects carbon bikes to be underwhelming, and so whenever I ride one, they - surprise! - strike me as underwhelming. The flip side is that I hang on every word Jan Heine writes, so when I throw a leg over an old French steel rando, I expect to be dazzled. And, surprise, I usually am.

So, next iteration: "A bike will probably be whatever you expect it to be." That may be why the carbon sellers spend so much on advertising - and why riders of carbon bikes so often sound like marketing guys.