This thread has morphed itself into the Forum-wide common discussion: Steel vs. carbon/ti/alu or, old vs. new or, frames are works-of-art vs. bikes are machines – take your pick because they all amount to the same argument.

People are always suspect of new developments. People are always comfortable with what they know and understand. I listen to the same music I listened to in my youth/young adulthood.

I have an old steel bike. I have a new (but no longer state-of-the-art) carbon bike. The steel bike is by no means an equal to a hand-built custom steel frame. But, it rides like a steel bike – smooth, not harsh. The steel bike saw plenty of action in the late eighties. I like to ride the old girl now and then – just to remind me how good the new bike really is. All my peers rode Colnago steel frames with Campy components back in the day. Guess what? They still ride Colnago! Only, now the frame is carbon fiber instead of steel. One of my buddies – who owned a slew of Italian steel frames over the years – was comparing the weight of his Colnago C-50 to my Look KG-241 and exclaimed ‘who would have guessed 15 years ago that we would be riding sub-19 lb bikes?’

Who would have guessed? The new stuff is better.