Originally Posted by
Zephyr11
...Carbon is not the delicate flower that sometimes people make it out to be. There are downhill mountain bikes made of carbon, and I can almost guarantee that the pros thrash those bikes harder than you'll thrash yours...
agreed carbon is plenty durable however a pro is sponsored by corporations that have loads of cash. he does not have to reach into his own pocket for bicycles. if he trashes a bike, who cares? There are probably 3 more in the van at the bottom of the hill.
obviously the $1000 difference is important to the op or else he wouldnt have started the thread at all.
as I said in my previous post, once you put suspension in a frame, the ride characteristics of the frame material are null and void. the shocks are designed to flex instead of the tubes.
the rock impacts I was referring to was crashing into them or falling over onto them. large rocks the size of cars, not pebbles being kicked up.
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2010 Kestrel RT900SL, 800k carbon, chorus/record, speedplay, zonda
2000 litespeed Unicoi Ti, XTR,XT, Campy crank, time atac, carbon forks