Trying to decide which route to take for a new bike – it is available in Carbon or Aluminium. Normally I would probably just go aluminium and save a bucket load of funds, but the carbon does look so very, very nice.

I ride in the Lakes and I am not a small chap, should this impact my decision?

Its one of those head says Alu, heart says Carbon things – so just looking for some thoughts or reasons to go one way or another! I am guessing that weight saving is not such an issue when I weigh comfortably north of the Clydesdale catagory 😉

I now have 3 Carbon bikes, all work fine, not snapped or anything else. Carbon is actually more reparable than Alu and I’ve seen people happily repair some crash damage that would have written off and Alu frame. Get plenty of rock strikes on mine over the years and it’s still running well. Carbon allows for much more creative design as you can engineer the things you want rather than being constrained by the strength requirements of the metal

I am trying to get down to around 110 – 115 kg… it isn’t massively far away, but that is about as low as I can go. This, and the extra £1.8k, is weighing on my mind!!!

TBH the weight is probably more of an issue for shocks and dropper posts (some will have a specified limit)

My thoughts are that if you can afford it then get the bike you want.

There’s no point in buying something that you’ll always look at and think it was a second choice.

Bike wise, they’ll probably both give you a good ride as unless you ride them back to back the difference will never be known.

Probably explains why we see so many carbon £4k bikes around tow paths and trail centres, but does it really matter 😆

I ride a carbon full suspension and at 110Kg it hasn’t complained yet and gets a reasonable amount of abuse although mainly wheels on the ground stuff.

Either way I am looking at 0% finance deals, so it depends if it is over 2 years or 3 years… the difference per month is noticeable, but given the longer time not so much of an issue.

It may come down to availability!

Given your weight the weight difference may not be a huge issue but the stiffness might be, in favour of the carbon one. That said aluminium is recyclable but on the flip side the frame I ready probably made as part of a years quota if a big make and it is easier to repair most of the time.

Looking at a Trek so yep, big brand!!!

I have had my boutique bike, sticking to bigger companies (and smaller bills) now as there are too many other things needing me to spend money on these days!

There is also an environmental impact, which you may or may not give a monkey’s about, that said extraction of aluminium isnt a gentle process, but it is more easily recycled. You can get a whole lot of wheel, suspension, dropper, cockpit (yes I said it) upgrades for the difference too.

I’m in the alloy camp, but then ive got a 26″ wheeled orange so what do i know, i am about to get a redundancy cheque, so have been thinking about this stuff.

I dont think that inherently the carbon fibre bikes are now more likely to fail and as said above can be repaired. although when i went down a rock garden with a friend on a carbon yeti, i was only worried about the trail not my frame when the rocks were bouncing about.

That said this is a hobby that cant be justified except becuase it makes you happy, so heart decisions rule!

Probably no help at all, sorry

I dont think that inherently the carbon fibre bikes are now more likely to fail and as said above can be repaired. although when i went down a rock garden with a friend on a carbon yeti, i was only worried about the trail not my frame when the rocks were bouncing about.

I good mate of mine went out and during one of the first rides on his new bike picked up a rock strike that dented the downtube of his new Alu bike 🙁 Fear isn’t always rational or fact based. I throw my carbon bike down stuff and through stuff hard and don’t think about it.

OP you’ve already made up your mind you want carbon – Get it now !!

Well that’s the rub. Carbon is stronger for sure, but not as damage tolerant as metal. A mate of mine who is into his trials stuff as well put a huge dent in the down tube of his alu bike attempting a trials-like move to get on top of a huge rock. He rode with that dent for years with absolutely no problems whatsoever. There is no way you’d continue to ride a carbon bike with known damage.

We all have stories of people and mates breaking frames, but one thing that has put me off carbon is a recent incident of a mate of mine – a fault with his rear mech caused it to jam up, rotate around and clash with the seat stay. It’s happened to me too in the past on my alloy bike and just caused a bit of a scrape and chip to the paintwork. However in my mates case it cleanly snapped through his seat stay. No worries he thought, these things are repairable. And it was. However speaking to the chap that carried out the repairs he learned that repairing carbon MTB frames keeps him very very busy indeed. Sort of says something about the robustness of them in my mind – i’m not aware of a thriving industry the does nothing but repairs Alu or metal frames. My current Alu frame has picked up a number of rock strikes, scrapes and bumps over the last 3 years and it seems to have only picked up superficial and cosmetic damage so far. I do wonder if it were carbon how many repairs or even replacement frames I might have had.

It’s a tricky decision – the lure of high end carbon bikes is strong. I’m approaching the point of hankering after a new bike and am contemplating the same choice. Normally I’d say buy the bike you can afford to replace. However I drool over Yeti 5.5C’s, but could not ‘ring fence’ the additional price of a replacement frame. You can argue all you like about warranties, some companies are good, some are bad, but I don’t want to be in the position of relying on warranty. Good companies can change their policies overnight on their generosity of honouring warranty. And if you break an Alloy bike you’re looking at about a half to a third of the cost to replace vs a high end carbon one, so though you’ll be thoroughly p’d off, its a damn sight more affordable.

How about a nice steel frame!? That’s the route I’ve gone down after snapping 3 alloy frames at welds in the last 2 years.

My carbon bike is holding up fine though!

I went for Alu on my latest bike, I would have loved the Carbon, but the frame alone is £2500+ and I bought a whole bike with decent useful parts for less than £2k. They don’t quote weights for my bike, but it’s very light for an Alu 160mm travel bike and has identical geo to the carbon one. I just can’t justify spending £2k more to save a few hundred grams.

There’s talk in work for setting up a R2W scheme, I might upgrade to a carbon frame using that if it’s cheap enough.

I recently hired a carbon fibre Norco Sight on holiday.

1) it was about the same price as taking my own bike
2) it meant I got to have a go on a new bike

The spec was great, and it was well serviced.

I still prefer my own less-than-sexy, budget-spec Aluminium framed bike. Because it has the grips / bars / saddle / tyres / stem-length / pedals that i like.

Following my extensive research expensive holiday, I’ve concluded that in terms of bike ‘feel’, grip diameter* is more important than frame material.

(*and half a dozen other contact points)

Back from attempts at exhausting the kids for the benefit of sleep tonight!

Arguements for both sides are equally compelling… I don’t think I am much further forward in this one!

I am looking at the Fuel EX Plus – either the 8 or the 9.8. The 9.8 looks sexy as… but I tried the 8 in 29er guise the other day and it wasn’t a minger by any means. The spec is a little more workmanlike – which is fine by me as I am a bit more workmanlike 😉

I judy keep seeing the pics side by side and thinking the carbon 9.8 looks so, so nice!

However… I could go for the 8, a set of spare wheels (29″ Hope Hoops) and still be quids in. This could be the most sensible and versitile option (and that comment about rear mech snapping through sear stays is playing on my mind)

Buy the carbon bike, ride it like a granny for 12 months (because you’ll be so scared of damaging the frame), then sell it to me in 12 months at a considerable financial loss to yourself.

Sorted 😆

I have broken three Trek Carbon frames or should I say three frames have broken whilst I was riding them. I have not broken an aluminium, steel or Ti frame yet. I weigh 90kg and don’t go for anything too gnar
Having said that, Trek were fantastic about replacements and it was 8 years ago and I think things have moved on since then

lol – I don’t plan on selling anything that soon… unless you fancy a Whyte T129S….