evening….
soon i will be adding another bike to the collection. have been focusing on carbon fs trail bikes from my lbs (scott genius 920/720)….

But, have i been so blinkered by carbon that i am missing other materials with potentially as light/stiff bikes? or is carbon the way forward (Unless cotic bring their pocket rocket out asap!)
hmmmmmmm

cheers

If you’re looking at the Cotic, then Id say you’re not hung up!!

I’ve got no issues with Carbon for an MTB, it was the bike I always wanted so I rode it liked it and went for it.

Saying that my Road bike and CX are both steel!!

People get fixated on LOADS of things.
Weight
Number of gears
Brand
Wheel size
etc

None of it makes the blindest bit of difference, but there’s nothing wrong with it 🙂

Carbon is the way forward. Sorry if people don’t like it but carbon frame manufacturers are still learning how to get the best from the material and achieve stiffness with compliance in the right areas. I own a 2006 and a 2013 Roubaix and the difference in ride and handling between them is amazing.

Tried all types of material for frames (except titanium):
Steel rigid
Ally hardtail
3 x ally full suss
1 x carbon hardtail

All good in their own ways but if I were looking to get another hardtail I’d be going steel or titanium (after trying it)..

Carbon is the way forward. Sorry if people don’t like it but carbon frame manufacturers are still learning how to get the best from the material and achieve stiffness with compliance in the right areas. I own a 2006 and a 2013 Roubaix and the difference in ride and handling between them is amazing.

Very true. But there’s more to riding a bike than the ‘best material’ isn’t there?

Q:
What’s the best bike in the world
A:
The one you’re riding.

And it doesn’t matter what that bike is, what it’s made out of, how much it cost, or what components are on it. If you ride it, than its fine.
If you’re the sort of person that MUST have the BEST or the LATEST thing then fine, that’s ace! But be honest about it. There’s someone else having a whale of a time on a £150 bodge job. And if you’re not, then you’ve missed the point. 🙂

Have steel and carbon, each is the best bike when I’m riding it at the time.
Strangely I don’t have aluminium?

That`s not strange though Dave ,I prefer my steel frames over the ally ones I have .I think im up to ten steel against two ally ones

I have a soft spot for cotic, would have had a bfe but they were out of stock when I was in the market…. so got the chameleon. Now I’m after a fs and I will have a fairly good budget which has bought carbon to the front of the shopping list. But I still have a feeling I might be missing something. … but I’m not sure what!

It’s not about the material though, it’s about what they do with it. It’s always been that way – different manufacturers took 853 tubes & made frames that appeared similar but rode very differently & 6061 alloy even more so.

With carbon, the potential is unbelievably variable purely on the nature of the material. Being able to ‘engineer’ stiffness, flex, strength etc into different parts of the same frame gives more control over how it’ll ride and even stand up to abuse. Exciting times ahead (hopefully). 🙂