help alu or carbon

steel42

hi, just about to purchase my first road bike, but im not sure to go for a carbon frame or the good old alu. my main concern is that this is a new sport to me and i expect to come a croper at one point will it be a waste of money to start out with the carbon only to get the frame trashed on 1 or 2 crashes where the alu will stand up to the abuse abit better.

oh the bike im considering are the felt z6 and z85
thanks

MountainMonster

Depends, i've had frames be fine after a few crashed, but then again i've also dented the sh!t out of a alu frame, although that was while MTBing.

I'd say just go for Carbon.

steel42

thats 1 for crbon then

elmsallmissile

No, they shatter on impact

MountainMonster

elmsallmissile wrote:

No, they shatter on impact

I can't tell if you are being serious or not. I've ridden a few Santa Cruz Blurs which are now made of Carbon, and even with a few crashes never had a problem. Also a few hardtails made from Carbon have passed through my hands, and never had even a crack in the carbon.

Hierotochan

Neither, you should be asking 'steel or titanium?'

Hehehe!

MattC59

MountainMonster wrote:

elmsallmissile wrote:

No, they shatter on impact

I can't tell if you are being serious or not. I've ridden a few Santa Cruz Blurs which are now made of Carbon, and even with a few crashes never had a problem. Also a few hardtails made from Carbon have passed through my hands, and never had even a crack in the carbon.

yeah, but let's be honest, Santa Cruz carbon frames are tough as old boots

MattC59

Hierotochan wrote:

Neither, you should be asking 'steel or titanium?'

Hehehe!

+1

But that depends on your budget. I'm going Ti next !

EarlyGo

+1 for Titanium, get the best of both worlds.

MountainMonster

MattC59 wrote:

MountainMonster wrote:

elmsallmissile wrote:

No, they shatter on impact

I can't tell if you are being serious or not. I've ridden a few Santa Cruz Blurs which are now made of Carbon, and even with a few crashes never had a problem. Also a few hardtails made from Carbon have passed through my hands, and never had even a crack in the carbon.

yeah, but let's be honest, Santa Cruz carbon frames are tough as old boots

Very true, but they have survived some very very rough landings, including cutting a 10 metre gap a bit short and clipping the side of the lip. Both wheels completely buckled, numerous parts destroyed, but frame not even a scratch. Carbons not as weak as people think!

optimisticbiker

MountainMonster wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

MountainMonster wrote:

elmsallmissile wrote:

No, they shatter on impact

I can't tell if you are being serious or not. I've ridden a few Santa Cruz Blurs which are now made of Carbon, and even with a few crashes never had a problem. Also a few hardtails made from Carbon have passed through my hands, and never had even a crack in the carbon.

yeah, but let's be honest, Santa Cruz carbon frames are tough as old boots

Very true, but they have survived some very very rough landings, including cutting a 10 metre gap a bit short and clipping the side of the lip. Both wheels completely buckled, numerous parts destroyed, but frame not even a scratch. Carbons not as weak as people think!

Carbon is stronger than steel if bonded correctly... there was a neat demo on Richard Hammonds 'Engineering Connections' programme on BBC2 where they 'torqued up' a steel propshaft and a carbon one. the carbon one weighed about 1/10 the steel but was able to stand over twice the torque... but when it snapped, it snapped! No twisting, just 'bang'... The important thing about CF is to get the weave running right depending on whether the part is in tension or compression or both....

kingrollo

Choose the bike you want. Personally I wouldn't worry to much about crash damage - the same thing was said about Alu in the late 80's - when steel was the dominant materail of choice.