Anyone ever ride a CARBON FIBER bike? Your thoughts please!
 

Anyone ever ride a carbon fiber bike?

What's it like?

Any pros/cons to steel (apart from the steel is real/steel is better/ect points) ?

Someone said the chip up if you ride 'em on the roade, is that true?

Any thing else I'm missing?

they shouldn't "chip up" unless you're brutally hard on 'em. if you get lots of chips in the gelcoat, though, they can delaminate. but i can't imagine that it would get to that easily.

i don't like 'em because they feel noodley. they're really super flexy and light, which can be good, but i weight alot and it just doesn't seem to be stable enough.

My road bike is an Aegis Aro Svelte, which I like a great deal.

http://subtle.org/se/pictures/misc/aegis1.jpg
(gratuitous photo)

Carbon is definitely a far different ride than steel -- significantly more vibration absorption, /can/ be significantly stiffer, very very smooth. The difficulty with carbon frames is that the ride can vary drastically between one manufacturer and another. My Aro Svelte is considered /very/ dead feeling amongst the carbon world - extremely stiff, very vibration absorbing, great climber. I've got several small chips in it which I've filled with clear nail polish to no deleterious effect.

I love carbon frames, and I'm strongly considering getting another (although most likely a Parlee this time) as a crash replacement for my Aegis. Parlee makes "lugged" carbon frames with unidirectional carbon tubes and hand-wrapped lugs -- similar to the Calfee bamboo frame, if you saw pictures from NAHBS -- versus the monocoque of my Aegis. It's supposed to make a much more lively and involving riding bike.

This is a large photo of the Parlee Z1SL. Sick, sick bike.

Entirely depends upon the frame. I remember the early Specialized Allez carbon frames which outright sucked -- it was like riding one of the skinny-tubed Vitus aluminum frames. Entirely too flexy. On the other hand, modern carbon frames like Calfees and the hot Treks are super stiff -- and I'm around 195lbs, so it's not a weight thing....

that parlee is insane...

I have a 60 cm hanging in my basement right now. I always hated it. Worst climbing bike ever. It sucked the power from the pedals right into the frame, NOT the wheels.

Carbon bikes today are completely different. Most serious frame builders have got a handle on carbon.

I have 2 steel, 1 aluminum, and 1 carbon bike. My carbon, Scott CR1 Pro, if definitely different from all of my other bikes. It is extremely stiff, light, and responsive. I have a few chips on it but nothing major. I love all of my bikes the same and ride them all equally. I don't fall into the steel is... or any of the other sayings. I am the fastest on my carbon but I definitely feel more stable and planted on either of my steel rides. It is pretty much a personal preference.

My carbon roadie is as stiff as they come and very light. It also absorbs more road shock than my steel trackie. Carbon bikes do vary quite a bit because of how each is built, so it really depends on what you get. Just to show off my new ride here too...

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...ister/moto.jpg

Hotness, Wangster. Utter hotness. Congrats.

wang, dude. that bike is nice. where/when'd you get that?

I got it a couple of weeks ago from bikesdirect.com

Like I said, that particular carbon frame is very stiff and very shock absorbing, plus the whole bike weighs just north of 16pounds.

I've been oogling the carbon fiber gan well pro hanging in the trackstar window... that thing is pure p0rn and weighs less than a feather. I'd love to give that thing a go on the track.

I recently test road the new cannondale women's carbon frame. I've never ridden carbon before, all my bikes are steel.
I was surprised, it was comfy and responsive and climbed well.
I like steel better, though I wouldn't tell people to rule it out

That is maybe the best looking road bike I have ever seen. Very nice

And a close second. Another beautiful bike.

http://subtle.org/se/pictures/misc/aegis1.jpg
Holy crap those are some long looking cranks. 180mm?


As for the OP question, I second that modern carbon frames have a ton of ride differences from mfg to mfg.
The new monocoque designs can have super stiff bottom brackets while maintaining a resilient ride on the butt.

When you say they feel noodley is a generalization "they" are not all the same. This is a pic of my roadie
It has Ti "lugs". This bike is not "noodly" at all. They are generaly always lighter than steel or aluminium.
So it seems to me that I climb alot better. You should try to test ride one and make your own opinion.
Some folks just dont like carbon which I understand to be just personal prefrence.
http://www.sevencycles.com/lib/img/p...eliumraceL.jpg

Nothing personal Wangster, I think that bike is a good deal...but if you posted that picture in the road forum you would have people having heart attacks like we get in here when people ask about/buy the Windsor/Mercier/Motobecane entry level fixed bikes.

Glad you like it...I almost got one when they first had them in last year.

really? how come? i was on a ride this weekend with a guy who had one, he said he liked it a lot (gotta admit tho, i was pretty surprised to see a motobecane cf bike)

Seriously. When I think 'motobecane', I think gaspipe and suicide levers.

actually, the road bike are different from the crappy 'messenger' bikes that they sell. The frames are very light and well built and the components are top notch. The bike came with a full ultegra group with very light ritchey wcs wheels.

Most of the people on the road forums agree that its a great bike at an incredible price, they actually were on sale for 1595 for a couple of weeks... thats about the cost of components alone.

Yeah this bike is one of the stiffer ones in the bb, with no sway or creak whatsoever no matter how hard I mash on a hill, even big guys agree. So I'm super happy with that bike, it's like a 4grand bike for half the price.

but I know what you mean, 'motobecane' can mean bad things, luckily not in this case.

Any bikesdirect.com bike is a ***ing joke dudes. Hopefully you didn't throw down more than a grand on that bike, because that carbon frame is no doubt high void and a flex monster, not to mention it has absolutely no warranty. Personally, I'm fortunate to work at a Trek dealer which has by far the best proprietary carbon of ANY manufacturer. OCLV is some super stiff (noodly?! yeah ***ing right!) purebred racing material that friggin' laughs at any Chinese made specialized or cannondale nonsense.

Yea, Trek makes some high quality racing ****.

http://www.velonews.com/images/int/9720.14346.f.jpg

You dumbass, if you'd been following that at all, it was a prototype fork and the headset adjustment was at issue. FWIW, I would never ride a carbon steerer tube.

Also, since you have such a nice high-res close-up there, see the nice smooth curves on the frame? There is no clay filler under the paint like you'd see on pretty much every other carbon frame.

Woah, it's waaay past your bedtime kiddo.

How big is this shop you work at? Right after the PR, Trek sent reps to all their concept stores and 1st tier dristros repeating the whole song and dance about how Hincapie used an aluminum steererer fork off of a pilot for more rake, and that a stress riser formed from the first crash.
Even the mom and pop dealers should have at least gotten a fax.

Put down the jergens and the madone catalog and get a good night of rest. Tomorrow, once fifth period English lets out, after you're done practicing cross-legged skids and natty fabians, go to work and call Trek's customer service line and ask for a copy of the release.

12XU are you always this big of an ******* or is the flow a little too heavy this month?

And to reply to the thread- I have rode a friends CF trek and it felt nice and smooth, but I can't really make that good of a comparison because it was also set up very differently from my own bikes. I liked how it felt but personally I would rather have a titanium bike if I was going for something high end.