Originally Posted by
thechemist
I actually REALLY want a steel race bike now. Custom fit,easy to repair. Firefly or speedvagen making me drool but quite a bit of coin when I really don't need a bike.
I believe it's significantly cheaper to repair carbon. Possibly steel allows worse damage to be repaired? At any rate, for a given CF repair, I think the same damage to steel would cost more to repair. I have a teammate with a four-year-old repair on both chainstays on his Orbea Opal. Both stays were cracked all the way through and displaced. $400 out the door with matching paint, and the repairs have weathered four seasons of racing and training. I can't imagine you could replace nice Columbus tubed stays for $400.