Interesting discussion. I have steel, ti, and CF bikes; and I love them all for different reasons. I'll only say two things: 1) it seems, to me, much easier to get up to speed on a CF bike, and 2) I would much rather ride one of my CF bikes when I do a lot of climbing, which is most of the time since I live in the Sierra Nevadas (rarely do my rides incorporate less than 4-5 thousand feet of elevation gain with steep gradients; most times, much more than this, on a fairly routine basis). I tend to think that the more you climb, the more you appreciate CF (of course, steel and ti are mighty nice on long descents on rough roads, too!).