FWIW, in one of mechanical engineering materials courses, we were looking at a method the professor uses to match materials to an application. As an exercise, we looked at a bicycle frame, listed all the attributes it needed, and the material best suited to the application was found to be a composite. This was in 2000 or 2001 when CF was still just a novelty material in the bicycling business. But, and here's the key, one of the properties we did not include was durability against damage. That said, my $800 road bike I referred to above is 9 years old and the only frame damage is where I misinstalled fenders and the attachment hardware rubbed some of the paint off. Other than that, no dents and no scratches (yes, it's been crashed a couple times). It is possible for a bicycle to last a long time without any mishaps.