While I was discussing the services that I needed performed on my Litespeed at the LBS yesterday, I was telling the mechanic that I hadn't really decided on what my next bike would be -- but probably carbon fiber. He then said something to the effect of don't even think about that. I said why not, and he explained that carbon fiber bikes "wear out" after five years or so. I had not heard that one before. He said my titanium bike would last forever. Then he recommended that I should get a much better wheelset (once I lost a bunch more weight)! (Truth hurts on that one.)

Anyway, what about his comment on carbon fiber bikes? I can't believe that someone would lay out $2,000 to $5,000 on a bike that will need to be replaced in five years or so.

With the newer carbon bikes, I don't think that's true. Look around the shop, if they don't have any carbon bikes for sale, that might answer your question. If his shop doesn't have carbon to sell you . . .

Bike Mechanic =/ Materials Scientist

that's an interesting argument, a wrong argument but interesting none the less. Metals fatigue, all metals including titanium. So in reality no bike will last forever. All things being equal and a carbon and titanium bike are ridden the same number of miles without crashing on the same roads then they should last the same amount of time. Unless one of the bikes crashes or a crack develops in the carbon I don't see how the mechanic could make such a blanket statement like that.

Now if you're talking about abuse, drops, crashes, etc. Then yes a carbon bike won't last as long. carbon is designed to be strong for particular tasks so a lateral stress would speed up the process of shortening the life span of a carbon bike.

LOL...ok a Pro cyclist puts what...30k miles + on a bike in a year...in race conditions...putting out more power than you and I combined. How many miles are you going to ride in the next 5 years? To hit that number you would have to do 6k mi per year...I am pretty serious and I know I don't do 6k miles (maybe I need to get more serious). The fact is people that are serious about bikes get a new bike in that amount of time anyway so even if it is true (which it isn't) it isn't an issue.

LMAO

That seems to be an uninformed comment, if only because it's probably more a function of the MILES/abuse on the bike frame as factors that might potentially lead to failure. To wit:

• Pros get new bikes every season. They ride 20-30K miles annually, and that's one big reason. How many miles do YOU ride? 2000? 5000? 8000?

• The comment above that 'all materials fatigue' is spot-on. Some here think titanium is 'forever'. It can be I suppose, but my 1991 Merlin cracked in two places in 1996 (no crash, just fatigue) At the time it has 40K+ pretty hard miles on it. That's unusual for Ti, but it does happen.

All that being said, here are two major considerations:

• If you ride as much as some amateur cyclists do (I put in 10,000+ miles annually) then you're probably not going to want to keep your road frame/bike longer than 5 years anyway for a number of reasons. Safety is one consideration (old stuff with high miles is more prone to catastrophic failure and I just replace it) but the other is that if you ride that much it's your passion. You will be upgrading at some point. The useful life of my road bikes over the years has been 5-7 years.

• Most amateur cyclists here ride more like 2000-4000 miles annually. At that rate the vast majority of bikes will last a decade or more regardless of frame material.

Take it with a grain of salt. Everybody has an ax to grind, particularly your LBS. It's all probabilities. Ti will probably outlast CF. But any frame material will probably outlast you.

- if you think about it, that's not really a hard number to hit - especially if you're a commuter (although i venture not too many commuters are on CF)...

- for example, i hit 6k last year and will do it again this year... 120 miles a week is all it takes...

- but definitely agree that Ti will outlast CF... one of my rides is a late 80s steel frame... still rides fine... dunno if i'd even purchase or ride a CF bike that old - but a Ti or steel frame would be OK...

I'd hazard a guess that the pros only have a bike for 1 season because the sponsors want them riding on the latest year's model. I'm sure the pro bikes that get sold off at the end of a season ride just fine for several more years.

- oh, and to the OP: were you at a LiteSpeed dealer? if so, it seems the comment dovetails with ABG's current marketing scheme?

:-)

The kung fu is strong in this one....could not have said it better myself.

Run away from that store and don't look back.

I better be carefull, I only have one year left on my Trek 5200 before it blows up into a billion pieces.

Well, that's the really big reason pros have a bike for one season...

Still, considering how Big George's steerer tube detonated on a BRAND NEW Trek @ Paris-Roubaix last year, you don't exactly want your big $ cycling stars riding last year's equipment, do you? This **** breaks. Even ELS (Expensive Lightweight ****).

George's steerer tube broke because it had been damaged in an earlier crash. The fork on George's bike was not the fork that is spec'd with a Madone. It was a Pilot fork.

FWIW, I've seen more broken Litespeeds than carbon bikes over the years...and all of the Litespeed have broken while JRA, usually in place that you don't expect Ti to fracture.

And to the OP, run away from that shop...

A friend of mine races on like a 92 giant cadex carbon. It was raced for a couple of seasons by a cat1 guy then ridden for quite a while. He races on it now and its fine, I wouldn't worry. I have heard of ALU as being a 4 season frame.

My I ask what bike shop this was, can I guess at bike source, ultimate, or bike sport

In steel & ti frames, the stress levels are below what fatigues the frame. Bothe steel & ti have a wonderful property of having an infinite fatigue life when the stress is below a certain level. However, Al does not. So a good steel or ti frame can outlast you.

Oh, and I do have formal training in material science.

...and you don't want to be on the bike when that happens. get all those splinters and carbon shards up your bum...

Sh1t my Giant CFR1 should have fallen apart 5 years ago.
Why didn't my bike shop tell me this when they sold it to me?

+1. They've probably seen so many "problems" with CF because they have high school students gorilla-torquing CF parts on bikes and crushing them all.

Funny, I just finished reading an article about aging Air Force aircraft with some F-15s being 28 years old. Unless you put 9 G's and 700 knots on your bike, plus throw in some moisture to create delamination problems, I don't think CF is going to just spontaneously collapse. That being said, if you ding it or crash it, all bets are off.

Good grief.

That's all I have to add. That, and I'm shaking my head.

Man...

Well, that's not exactly true. All materials will fatigue. However some materials have fatigue limits below which they can be stressed without fatiguing the metal. (Compare Steel and Ti with fatigue cycles to AL, with no fatigue cycle.)

Moreover there's more to it than just fatigue from repetitive road stress. One there's the question of how well the material is put together. (For example in Patent Cad's situation I believe his MErlin failed in the area of a weld.)

Also a CF bike is going to be more prone to being damaged by minor impacts that just occur living with a bike over time than than Ti. A CF frame getting dinged up in the car, or falling over, may give rise to a stress riser that over time becomes a problem. Whereas the same impact to a Ti frame is likely to be no problem, given the spring like qualities of Ti.

My 1989 steel Paramount and and 1998 Ti Merlin are still going strong,both having been ridden hard and put away wet on occassions, and both will likely survive me. While I doub't I'll wear out my 2007 Giant TCR Advanced, I'd be willing to bet that it will fail at some point in my lifetime, from a crash, or a crack etc.

Carbon vs Titanium......wrong forum. Please move this to Politics and RELIGION.

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