Carbon fiber is light. It鈥檚 strong. It can be used to build everything from frames to seat posts to handlebars to cranks. And it鈥檚 one of the worst things that鈥檚 happened to bikes.
Now, to be clear, carbon fiber makes perfect sense for professional racing. Because it鈥檚 basically a fabric, builders can mold it into all sorts of aerodynamic shapes. Moreover, they can tune ride quality and maintain strength while simultaneously keeping the weight to a minimum in a way that鈥檚 not really possible with metal tubing. It used to be that racers had to choose between a light bike and an aero bike; now they can have both, all thanks to the miraculous properties of carbon fiber. At this point, there鈥檚 no reason for elite competitors to use anything else.
But here鈥檚 the thing: you鈥檙e not them. I鈥檓 sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you鈥檙e almost certainly incapable of milking the handful of seconds a wind tunnel-sculpted pro-level carbon fiber race machine might theoretically net you in certain situations. Moreover, the pro racers who do need carbon fiber bikes get them for free; only the people who don鈥檛 need them actually pay for them. This means that, ipso facto, if you鈥檝e purchased a carbon fiber bicycle, you鈥檝e made a mistake.
鈥淥kay, fine, I may not be ,鈥 you may be thinking. 鈥淢aybe I didn鈥檛 need a carbon bike. But how does that mean I鈥檝e made a mistake?鈥
Simple: while you鈥檙e not able to extract carbon fiber鈥檚 small performance benefits, you are in an ideal position to experience its many drawbacks鈥攁nd for normal people, carbon fiber bicycles have only drawbacks.
Probably the biggest drawback to carbon fiber bikes is that they鈥檙e like eggs. You know how eggs are almost impossible to break if you squeeze them from the pointy ends, but if you squeeze them any other way you鈥檒l quickly wind up with a handful of yolk? Similarly, while carbon bikes are quite strong when used as designed, what they鈥檙e designed for is racing. They鈥檙e not designed for crashing, falling off a hitch rack, getting knocked over in the garage by your young children, or any of the other little mishaps that befall normal people鈥檚 bicycles as part of the messy business of day-to-day living.
Yes, plenty of those things also happen to pro racers鈥 bikes, but they don鈥檛 have to worry about it, because if the bike breaks in two after a crash or the baggage handlers at the airport manage to crack it the team just throws it away and gives them another one. But you don鈥檛 have that luxury. Crashing a carbon fiber bike can be a one-and-done scenario鈥攁nd even if there鈥檚 no visible damage you can鈥檛 be sure it鈥檚 not structurally compromised without giving it an . Even can potentially result in failure. Admittedly this is not terribly common, but the fact that it鈥檚 even a possibility is ludicrous.
And the daintiness isn鈥檛 just limited to accidents. You鈥檝e also got to be really careful when working on a carbon fiber bicycle. Don鈥檛 clamp it in a repair stand. Don鈥檛 over-torque any of the fasteners. Don鈥檛 drop your multitool on that dainty top tube. Then there鈥檚 all the internal cable routing and press-fit bottom brackets and other maintenance headaches that are an unwelcome side-effect of all that wind tunnel testing. See, carbon bikes and components were designed to be serviced by shop technicians and team mechanics, not regular schmucks like you. In fact, you鈥檝e probably even less qualified to work on them than you are to ride them.
Finally, let鈥檚 face it: carbon bikes are ugly. They look like they鈥檙e made of cheese. Have you looked at a Pinarello Dogma lately? It looks like it鈥檚 melting.
So what should bikes be made of then? What, do you even have to ask? Steel! They should all be made from steel.
For most uses, there鈥檚 little reason to build a bike out of anything other than steel. It鈥檚 light, it鈥檚 strong, it鈥檚 relatively inexpensive鈥攊t鈥檚 as close to being perfect as a bike material gets. Is it as light as carbon fiber? No, it isn鈥檛. But so what? Unless you spend more time carrying your bike than riding it, a slight weight reduction is utterly meaningless, and foregoing a nice steel bike because the carbon one is lighter is like choosing a single $50 bill over twenty $5 bills because the fifty easier to fit in your wallet. Can a steel bike crack? Get destroyed in a crash? Get swept away by a tornado? Of course it can, anything鈥檚 possible. But generally speaking steel dents instead of cracks, if it does crack it fails very slowly instead of splintering, and for the most part steel is going to shrug off the kind of incidental abuse and hard knockage that鈥檚 an unavoidable part of owning, riding, working on, and traveling with a bike.
And if you鈥檙e one of those people who worries about steel bikes and rust, you can relax, because in order for rust to destroy your bike you鈥檇 pretty much have to store it at the bottom of the sea.
Best of all, steel bikes look fantastic. Assuming the designer hasn鈥檛 gone out of their way to make it ugly, or done something really stupid like equipping in with suspension, a steel bike is timeless. Meanwhile, a carbon bike is thrillingly cutting edge until it鈥檚 about two or three seasons old, at which point it becomes yesterday鈥檚 hunk of plastic and nobody wants it, including you.
And no, I鈥檓 not one of those retrogrouches who鈥檚 afraid of carbon bikes and thinks they鈥檙e all about to explode at any moment. In fact, . (It was a finely aged hunk of cheese.) Yes, I know they make airplanes out of it. Yes, I know it can often be repaired. Yes, I know the majority of people who own carbon fiber bikes won鈥檛 have a problem with them. But airplanes have a whole federal agency looking after them, and who the hell wants to have to send their bicycle frame out for repair because of some dumb little crash in the first place?
I鈥檇 much rather ride steel and just live with the dents and scratches, they give the bike character.