For a road bike that is. I was having the discussion with a riding friend and he says that even a cheap carbon is better than a decent alu frame these days. Surely not.? A good alu frame is very close to the weight of a cheap carbon and very similar in price.

The short answer to this for me is who knows? This is not to be unhelpful, but until just before xmas my bikes were a parlee z4, colnago clx and a fantastic 2005 alu principia as my general training bike. I did try and change the principia for a px ti bike at one point but the principia was much more fun to ride. Also was the parlee worth x thousand more, yes to me but in terms of performance????
Following the demise of the principia thanks to one of manchesters fine taxi drivers I replaced this with a px alu second hand thing, now this is much more solid, but still fun to ride and I can put a ton on it without feeling that battered.
Earlier this year I had a few weeks in Norway visiting family, and borrowed a Cannondale caad 10 from my cousin and put in about 1300 miles on it, and honestly felt that if that was my only bike I would be very happy. This said my brother has a deng fu carbon frame, well spec’ed out, and to me this feels great to ride also.
I think angles, fit, wheels and contact points make as much difference as frame materials. Perhaps my road battered bum is just not sensitive enough to pick up the finer nuances of some rides, because I hear some people spouting, what I feel is, crap about what they ride and how it feels. Essentially, I think people can convince themselves of pretty much anything if it supports their view of what’s best.

Horses for courses…what does “better” mean?

As a generalisation, carbon likely to be stiffer and less comfy?…not what I want, even if I was racing, that makes **** all difference to speed.

As a generalisation, carbon likely to be stiffer and less comfy?…

Yep, that’s a generalisation…

Well designed it should be both stiffer and comfier – even my old XTC Carbon managed that.

I recently tried aluminium and carbon versions of the same bike (Giant Defy) and thought the carbon (the cheapest version – composite) was more comfy and more responsive. Liklely partly down to fact that the carbon is Ultegra specced and the aluminium 105 though

sure you werent just riding a fatter tire – i found the XTC carbon to be the most stiffest uncomfiest oddest angled bike of any bike ive ever ridden in stock format ….

it depends what the bikes designed for i wouldnt expect fabian cancellaras frame although carbon to be comfier than a lighter less powerful riders frame

i would expect the cervelo p5>? california to be comfortable as hell carbon due to the lack of material but equally it will be flexy under power

problem being that most manufacturers – cannondale being an exception see medeocre alu frame and jazz it up with some fancy ultegra or duraace and folk buy it because of that – in that case id rather a cheap carbon frame. but if it is truely a good aluminium frame like my mrs’ omega easton scandium custom butted frame then id rather have that – how ever we all know good quality reynolds steel is the way forward for a road bike thats all about having fun and knocking in miles as oppose to time trialing and racing seriously

“Liklely partly down to fact that the carbon is Ultegra specced and the aluminium 105 though “

very unlikely – probably just that the frame was well designed using the properties of carbon well !

“Liklely partly down to fact that the carbon is Ultegra specced and the aluminium 105 though “

very unlikely – probably just that the frame was well designed using the properties of carbon well !

…….oh well, that’s good then, ‘cos I bought the composite one 😆

smell_it – Member
…people can convince themselves of pretty much anything if it supports their view of what’s best.

Wise words.

I’m thinking of swapping my sl pro frame for the ali cervelo s1!

Over the last twelve month of riding with the local road club I have come to the conclusion that legs, heart and lungs are the biggest factors. Some of the old boys on there 20+ old steel bikes can run rings round the carbon lads.

My aluminium Allez is less stiff and far less comfy than my Madone. It’s horrible in comparison frankly!

aye nick – your allez is an entry level frame and your madone is a leak down from the tdf frames …… hardly apples for apples….

Interesting (or not) fact.

Cannondale CAAD10 costs the same as a Deda Nerissimo and Dolan Ares frameset, the frames are all the same weight (~1150g) and comes with a free 105 groupset, wheels and some cheep finishing kit (and being a Cannondale, it’ll ride nicely too).

Tempted to buy it, stick the bits on my current ‘dale CAAD4 and the DA and new wheels and bits on the CAAD10.