falconsusi

For those worried about the strength of carbon. I don't understand the workings of this, but here is what I can add:
My husband has built a kit motorglider. Carbon mostly. They are made of carbon because of the ease of repairs. Carbon is designed that in the event of a break the frame takes the impact and not the person. Look at a carbon sailplane. The boom (the really little circular area from the front to the tail) is designed to break in the case of a tailspin on landing. This is much safer than an aluminum plane which will tailspin (hitting a wingtip on landing can cause a spin) and possibly flip and cause a much worse accident. Carbon is fairly easy to fix and just as strong as originally built it done properly. On the sailplane that broke at the boom - you just fix the boom with carbon and it is good to fly again. We own a private airport and have a repair shop in residence. They repair carbon all of the time. Yes there aren't a lot of places that do carbon, but it is easily repaired and in many cases stronger than originally built. Aluminum which bends will always have a weakness in the area of the bend.

And on another note I am also getting a Cannondale Synapse 5 105 aluminum womens bike. I can't pay for it now so it is on layaway. For me the aluminum is affordable over the carbon. And at another bike shop I was put on a carbon bike to see the differences between carbon and aluminum and I wasn't comfortable yet with the extreme lightweight of the carbon, but I am riding a mountain bike right now with hybrid road tires so my bike probably weighs 35 lbs.