Hi everyone, this is my first post. I am currently looking around for a new road bike. I've been riding a Centurian Le Mans steel road frame from probably the late 70's or early 80's. I came across a carbon bike with aluminum lugs in a LBS, it's the NX7 from Blue Competition Cycles. It was really light and felt really good sitting on it. I couldn't test ride though, so I'm not sure how it rides. How would this sort of design, with the aluminum lugs and CF frame, affect the bike/ride/anything else? Carbon seems like a great new material to use, but after reading a lot of your posts, I wonder if I should I stay away from carbon all together?
I keep hearing so much from people about how CF is so easily broken from a tiny scratch and how steel bikes are the way to go and blah blah blah. There just seems to be so much propaganda either way that it's making my head spin. Does it really only take a little scratch to kill carbon? Is there no protective paint or anything to help prevent this? Does anyone know of any reviews or trials of NX7? Any objective info would help a lot, thanks guys.