Nobody here has discussed the differences in what happens when the frame actually fails. Well, somebody mentioned that carbon cracks while metals will bend. True, and the bike is possibly a goner either way. But if a metal frame crashes and bends it is less likely to puncture your skin than a cracked carbon/epoxy frame.

Two guys riding with a Wednesday night speedy ride in the Orlando area were going about 30 mph through a relatively low traffic rural neighborhood a couple of years ago. One guy had a Serotta steel bike and the other had a Trek OCLV. Suddenly a guy in a pickup truck turned right in front of the group. Since they were in the front of the pack, they both crashed into the truck almost simultaneously. The guy on the steel Serotta got banged up pretty bad and needed his lip stitched up. Damage to the bike - one little ding hardly worth mentioning. The guy with the OCLV had his frame shatter to bits. It was held together only by the cables. He was taken to the hospital with a broken arm and pucture wounds to his knee. They reportedly spent hours pulling the carbon splinters out of his knee. Carbon splinters are supposedly quite painful. Just something to consider when shopping for a bike.

A couple of years ago, they pulled all the Rolf tubular wheels out of the TdF because a crash made a rim crack with a jagged edge, vs. most rims, which are designed to bend when they fail. Yet everyone knows that when a carbon component fails, it will also leave a sharp jagged edge. Why the difference in treatment?

That being said, I do ride bikes with carbon forks - calculated risk I guess. I work in the aerospace industry and have designed parts of carbon/epoxy. I trust the material under normal circumstances but the failure mode is what scares me. I have dozens of friends that have ridden carbon bikes for many, many years without incident so I am not trying to be an alarmist. Just trying to share some pertinent information.