I picked up my first modern road bike this past fall. It's a switch up from the mountain and hybrid bikes I have. The bike was a lightly used Felt F85.

With limited experience on road bikes I've little basis for comparison but the ride quality of this bike has really exceeded my expectations to the point that I wonder how good these carbon bikes must ride.

I bought this from a triathelete friend how upgraded so when I took ownership it had 18mm tires. Even with those tires the bike was very nice. My only issue issue is at 6'4" tall this bike is a little too small which has me thinking I may want something larger.

For as much as I have searched the Internet for direct comparisons I have yet to see a head-to-head ride quality shootout of Al vs. Carbon. Has anyone experienced the difference between two similar bikes of the two materials and was it a noticeable difference in vibration damping and ride quality?