Originally Posted by Johno59

I work for the largest composite fiber material manufacturer in the world. We are the biggest supplier to every aerospace, high speed train, high performance car, bike, tool, helmet etc anywhere you care to mention.

Average Joe below Tour d' France average speed (26 mph for 3 weeks and 150 pounds dripping wet) doesn't have the strength or fitness to get the benefits that carbon gives in terms of rigidity and lack of weight to power transfer and acceleration over Reynolds tubing.

What the Average Joe carbon bike owner does get is a bike that after five years has delamination (the resin has separated from the multiple layers of carbon fabric) and you then have a very expensive marshmallow that can fail in a heartbeat regardless of outward appearances.

Notice how on the latest carbon bikes the bottom bracket housings and headstays are getting bigger and bigger. More and more folks are unhappy with the lack of rigidity of what was a major financial investment.

As opposed to a steel bike that can keep on going for at least a hundred years.

IMHO leave carbon to the pros, they achieve incredible things on them because they are probably, pound for pound the strongest and fittest sportsman on the planet. For the pro teams the bikes are a high performance disposable tool provided by the makers for nothing.