There is no reason to buy a carbon bike

[spoonrobot]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

Subjective or not, you don't have to be mad or outraged to make those assessments. People do it everyday when they evaluate movies, books, food, music, etc.

Please, don't be scared to respond:

Did people read the article? Yes
Did some people experience an emotional response? Yes
What were those emotions? __________________(Fill in the blank)

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by spoonrobot

Please, don't be scared to respond:

Did people read the article? Yes
Did some people experience an emotional response? Yes
What were those emotions? __________________(Fill in the blank)

Yawning is not an emotional response.

[spoonrobot]

"Boring article yawn, made a half-dozen or so posts about how boring it was and dipped out. Solid Sunday morning session."

[mcteague]

Ugh! This again? Sure, no one needs a carbon bike. Heck, no one NEEDS a bike at all. No one needs large flat screen TVs, high-end cars, expensive watches, etc., etc., etc. Once the basics of life are fulfilled it is mostly want....nothing wrong with that. Without those wants where would world economies be?

Tim

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by spoonrobot

"Boring article yawn, made a half-dozen or so posts about how boring it was and dipped out. Solid Sunday morning session."

I just reviewed many of your recent posts. Either stop stirring the pot or stop posting. It's annoying and counter productive here.

And No, I'm not outraged.

[krooj]

Originally Posted by Pastashop

If you only care about improving *yourself*, why would you resort to doing that on lighter bikes?.. Do you stop at lighter / more aero bike, or do you soon go to a motor assist? Or am I misunderstanding the kind of bike you prefer for these rides over a Trek 520, and reasons for it?

This has to be a willfully fallacious argument - you've ridden in the Santa Cruz mountains, so should know that a touring bike is NOT fit for purpose when trying to ride quickly on those roads. It'd be like rallying a Ford Taurus.

[Pastashop]

Originally Posted by krooj

This has to be a willfully fallacious argument - you've ridden in the Santa Cruz mountains, so should know that a touring bike is NOT fit for purpose when trying to ride quickly on those roads. It'd be like rallying a Ford Taurus.

I respectfully disagree that I provided a "willfully fallacious argument." Yes, a "Trek 520" is not the snappiest-feeling type of bike to ride there, but in my opinion, longer chainstays, wider tires, and slacker head tubes afforded by traditional touring-type bikes help on descents. The climbs –*ok, that sort of bike is less "flickable" out of saddle, but lower gearing and longer chainstays actually help stable climbing in the seat.

In contrast, I also rode around on a Specialized Allez, and that bike was fine, but not very stable at all, and certainly didn't allow me to use the same bike easily for a mix of freshly paved road, "mild" NorCal off-road, and craptacular Berkeley roads. I did run Conti Sprinter tubulars the Allez, so that actually helped with fewer flats.

My MB-1 with slicks was a much more versatile bike. Even then I felt too stretched out on typical bike set-ups, so I used a shorter-than-common stem on the MB-1 and really enjoyed it in a variety of settings.

Of course YMMV...

[NHAero]

Jeez, some of you folks need to go out for a ride (on any material you prefer). And be grateful it isn’t 26F as it was this morning on our weekly MTB ride!

[mdeth1313]

Stay tuned for my (not awaited) rebuttal. There is no reason to buy a bike - stop dressing in lycra, re-living your childhood and clogging up the streets.

(for those that don't understand, this is sarcasm - and probably as bad as the article)

[Baron Blubba]

It's so interesting to me, and also dismaying, how much acrimony springs up around what is quintessentially personal preference.
We can discuss which specific type of bike we feel is better for which purposes, fine. But can we tell people 'you don't need/you shouldn't want/you're wrong if you prefer', when it comes to something as trivial as a bike?

None of us know enough about each other to make those judgements. We don't know everything about why, how, where one another ride. We don't know what sensations we each prefer to feel while riding, and those sensations differ from carbon bike to carbon bike, steel bike to steel bike, aluminum to aluminum, etc.
We don't know enough about each other's financial situations to judge which bikes are appropriate or wasteful for one another. What one person calls stable another person calls boring. What one person calls fun and playful and frisky another person calls twitchy. What one person calls art another person calls ugly.
Why do we care so much? Why do we feel indicted for our own personal decisions when someone else makes a different decision?
Why are we telling people what they are or are not? We all know what we are and are not better than anyone can tell us. What we do with that information is up to us, and maybe that's why some of us chase the cutting edge with aerodynamic lightweight tubeless flat mount disc brake equipped electronic shifting carbon fiber road bikes with fully integrated cabling and oversized ceramic-bearinged pulley wheels, while others ride vintage steel...or both, or both and lots of stuff in between.

We can discuss the objective material facts about materials. We can discuss our personal experiences with those materials, from a crafting or riding perspective. But good golly, why do we have to be so derisive and sanctimoniously dismissive when we're talking about other people's preferences that really do nothing, nothing, nothing to affect our own enjoyment of the things that we prefer?

Steel or carbon for a casual cycling enthusiast? Rim or disc? Electronic or mechanical? 1x or 2x? Tubeless or tubed or Tubolito'd? There's no wrong answer, although I remember when I lived in Soviet Russia in the 1920's, it was dangerous to ride anything better than Claris, the Official Groupset of the Proletariat.

[p nut]

Never have I seen so many people triggered since Chris Kostman’s MTB article.
🤣

[Pastashop]

You know how it goes... it's this or chain lube...

[mstateglfr]

Originally Posted by Mark Davison

It makes more sense for most purchasers (who are not keen bike enthusiasts, and want to own one or two bikes at most, and not spend much time on them) to have a versatile bike.

The bike is going to be ridden for recreation, for commuting, for errands, taken on trips on airlines and trains, put on top of cars, ridden in all weather. It may be ridden on unpaved as well as paved roads. It needs to carry luggage.

I am curious to hear what % of people who aren't 'keen bike enthusiasts' are frequently(or even infrequently) doing the things you list- bringing their bike on a plane or train?...riding in all sorts of weather?...commuting?...strapping it atop a car?

Can't say I see that stuff frequently happening for those I know or see who aren't keen bike enthusiasts.

[rustychisel]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

Steel or carbon for a casual cycling enthusiast? Rim or disc? Electronic or mechanical? 1x or 2x? Tubeless or tubed or Tubolito'd? There's no wrong answer, although I remember when I lived in Soviet Russia in the 1920's, it was dangerous to ride anything better than Claris, the Official Groupset of the Proletariat.

POTY and it's only February. By Golly you're right. I now recall Trotsky wanted to upgrade to 105, was accused of being a 'wanna-be racer' and forced to flee the country. Still, they got him in the end.

The ice pick, by the way, was steel.

[mstateglfr]

Originally Posted by Pastashop

I’m with Mark D (and Snobby) 110% on this. The general public follows the advertisement and the domain’s perceived elite’s advice. The industry worships the place where the two converge most profitably - and here, it’s the laterally stiff vertically compliant aerodynamic crabon fribe biek with internal hydro routing and proprietary parts.

There are so many bikes for sale at bike shops that aren't fully internal routing, or carbon, or aero focused.
Tons of drop bar options, so it's not like I am referring to low end hybrids here.


If someone walks past all those and chooses a carbon frame road bike instead?...well OK then. But that doesn't mean the other bikes don't exist. The industry is absolutely making and selling those bikes too.