Originally Posted by
Jarrett2
lol, its funny you say that. Sometimes I take out my touring bike loaded with stuff on slower group rides to make it a little tougher on myself. When I get back on my light carbon bike for the next ride, it feels like its going to shoot out from underneath me
the key here is "it feels like"... a gps accounting of speed would not agree with our feeling...
you said I agreed with you that the cf bike is faster... ok, so if the op goes with a super light (for the money) cf bike, his story would change to say that the guy who made the road noise passing him would now make 3 and a quarter seconds of noise going by instead of 3 seconds of noise...guess $1600 to make you maybe that much faster is a good deal, right? The one thing that will make him noticeably faster is too lose the weight and improve his physical condition...as to the bike the biggest improvement to speed will be going from MTB tires to road tires and improving body position (less wind resistance) on the road bike, frame material is totally irrelevant in that regard, at least until he gets to ideal riding weight and at a competitive speed, then the minor difference might be important...a lot of crit racers prefer aluminum frames over cf frame there for durability too....on a hill climb weight is a factor... but in truth at the speed recreational riders and exercise riders go... frame material is their least concerning factor...