Originally Posted by
WestPablo
Yeah, but where would you lock your new CF up, when you're at the downtown library, movies, or restaurant?
Would you lock it up between two beater bikes at the library's bike rack?
Would you lock it next to a parking meter?
Would you lock it next to a traffic or street sign?
You might very well pay a price for carbon that's on par with an aluminum price, but chances are, the care given would not be anywhere near equivalent.
Your knock against CF was that it needed to be coddled. My response to that is that in the conditions my winter bikes are exposed to, steel actually requires more coddling than CF. That's why I don't use a steel bike in the winter. I don't use a CF bike in the winter because they're too expensive.
There ARE things I would avoid doing with a CF bike that I wouldn't be as concerned about with other frame materials, but depending on your commute those situations may or may not apply. Locking it to a crowded rack is one of those situations. Locking it up other situations wouldn't bother me as much. Locking up any $3,000 bike for any length of time in theft prone areas would cause me concern no matter what it was made out of.