Originally Posted by
cxwrench
To be perfectly honest with you neither frame material nor 'design' have really anything to do with ride quality. Unless you have some kind of mechanical pivot in the frame (Trek Domane) all frames are so close in ride quality you'd never be able to tell the difference in a blind test. Tire pressure is another story.
In fact, I have three steel bikes and one carbon fiber bike. The most comfortable one is the one with the most tire clearance (now running 30c). The least comfortable one only has room for 23c. Both of those are steel. The carbon fiber one sits in the middle and is running 25c. Each bike handles a little differently and behaves a little differently while pedalling, but frame material is only one of several factors at play (tube diameter, geometry, wheel quality/flex, etc.).