Before he closed his shop and handed everything over to Trek, Keith Bontrager used to do a LOT of testing to destruction. He said that you could break anything by either dialing the forces up or running them long enough.

The stuff that was WAY off the chart was the carbon fiber stuff.

But that was then and this is now. Now we're looking at sub-kg frames and forks that weigh less than a lb. Tap the tubes on the latest high zoot carbon bikes and you'll be amazed that there are sections of these bikes no thicker than a sheet of paper.

As long as the bike is built completely correct, as long as there are no voids and the mix was completely uniform the bike will handle the stresses fine. Wanna bet that yours isn't the one with such a failure?

And by the way, Trek OCLV's cracked at the seattube near the front derailleur hanger. So let's not act as if carbon frame failures weren't common from the start. My Basso carbon bike cracked down the seat tube. There were soft spots in the seat tube as well. The early Trek 5000's broke at the bottom brackets. TVT's got serious delamination from electrolysis at the aluminum lugs so all those guys that swarmed over TVT after LeMond won a climbing stage on one were soon out of a lot of bucks.

My point is this - if you want to spend big bucks on a high zoot paperlite frame don't be surprised that it will only last a year or two. THAT'S what they were designed for - not a lifetime of use.

My friend has a DeRosa that was in his house that burned down. All of the parts were melted into blobs. It melted all the braze out of several joints. He had Litton re-braze and paint the bike and still rides it 25 years later.

Do you know how you improve an old steel bike? You get it painted. Don't try that with a CF bike.

Now I still own a C40 and a Look and an Eddy Merckx EX made by Litespeed. But I know which bikes are the most reliable.