jamesdak 

I'm actually with Jack on this and I have demo'd modern bikes. In short it was a Trek Domane I tried just a couple of years ago to see how it handled the rough chipseal I ride on. I even went so far as to put on a set of my wheels/tires and saddle. The bike still could not compete with many of my steel bikes on the rough section's of road and certainly was not any faster.

I'l also point out that I have had a couple of modern C.F bikes. Namely a Scott CR1 Pro, a Trek Madone 4.5, and a Trek Madone 5.9. After several years I went through my daily ride logs and just couldn't find any data that the C.F. bikes were any faster under me than my steel ones. In fact the longer the rides went the better the overall pace on the steel rides was. As also put notes down about how I feel at the end of rides. A common them was refreshed and ready for more on the steel bikes and beat up and tired on the C.F. ones. Then before finally selling off the C.F. bikes I did centuries on Saturdays for about a 6 week period. Same route, etc. The faster times were on the steel bikes and I definetely felt better at the end of the century's done on steel. Enough for my needs so I sold off the C.F. bikes. Reality is what it is.

Now all that said. I did pick up an old NOS Trek Y-Foil and used it this summer for a very fun, fast, and comfortable 100 miler.

Another interesting note is that many of my PR rides on route's I ride regularly were accomplished without being on one of my 11 speed bikes. Not even sure if any are set with my 10 speed ones. For sure many have been pulled off on the ones sporting 8 and 9 speeds having a massive number of gears obviously isn't that big of a deal to me either. Anyway, food for thought from someone with an open mind.