It sounds like your bike doesn't fit you.

yup. all signs point to "your fit is off." you need to put less weight on your hands and move your hands up and maybe forward or backward, can't tell with elbows.

aluminum frames will only make your actual hands hurt because your grip has to compensate for chatter, and your lower spine and butt hurt. again, chatter.

beyond that, even the lowest quality aluminum bike won't hurt you if it's fit properly.

also, carbon fiber is NOT the answer to everything, especially carbon seatposts. especially cheap carbon. cheap carbon is likely to be just as stiff as aluminum in the wrong areas and just as compliant in the areas that it shouldn't be. carbon weaves are extremely stiff in one or two directions, and flex a LOT in others. unfortunately, to get those properties where you want them, you have to design the part extremely well and most cheap carbon parts are not designed well. they're just made out of carbon because people will pay a lot for it.

you are aware that leaders are very long and low? have your stem short and bigger rise than normal and make sure you fit your saddle position and crank arms to your legs.

that said, ride more carefully and with more weight on your feet instead of your hands.

So if I were to look into a carbon fork, how can I tell the cheap carbon from the good carbon?

there aren't very many crappy ones, but there are a few that won't be any better than a steel or aluminum fork in terms of ride quality.

one dead giveaway is uneven weave 'ripples' where it's obvious they just draped a weave over a mold and cut it where it needed a 'dart' like any other fabric. good carbon is weaved to fit not cut. also, good carbon doesn't ripple.

good carbon generally is carbon where it's carbon and not mostly aluminum wrapped in carbon for the crown and first third of the blades... but it's hard to tell that from looking. good carbon will be light and stiff fore and aft and beyond that i'd just look for name brands like reynolds and kinesis and alphaq.





speaking of "i think i made a mistake"

i just ordered an aluminum frame in black. then i was looking at builds online and i saw a beautiful one in white, then biking home from work today i stopped and saw basically that level built white one... it was really close to how i'd build mine, and i was thinking "gosh the white looks so good..."

but after thinking about it now i'm like, you know, i'm glad i won't have the same bike as someone else in town and i think the black will be nice looking but not as flashy, which is what i want from this bike.

no use in having or riding a bike that you're not happy with.

While I agree that carbon seat posts will do nothing for ride quality, the rest of your post is wrong. Cheap Al frames ride much, much, rougher than a cheap carbon frame. I went from a top of the line Al cannondale road frame to an entry level Fuji carbon frame, and its night and day. The real world stiffness is the same, but the ride quality improvement is night and day.
Large diameter Al tubes will results in a rough ride, period. Even with a proper fit, you will end up more fatigued on an Al frame than a well designed CF frame. There is a reason there isn't anyone riding Al frames in the pro peleton, and it's not that CF frames are lighter.

Because the sponsors want the riders on their stuper expensive carbon.




I ride a cheap Al frame, the chatter is there but isn't a big deal. I put some wider tires and it's even less of an issue

No, because of the ride quality.

Cool except he was talking about carbon parts not carbon frames, try reading his post again. And your reply is doubly useless because the OP's problem results from fit issues, not from riding an aluminum frame.