Carbon comfort factor

muzzan

Hi all,

So I am currently looking at a better road bike for next year for longer weekend rides & possibly joining a club. I currently commute on a Boardman CX, which I plan to keep as a commuter/winter bike.

My main issue at the moment is whether to go for a higher spec alu bike, like this Rose one

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/rose ... aid:547276

or a lower spec carbon, something like this Canyon

http://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/bik ... ab-reiter2

Note that the alu bike is actually a bit lighter than the carbon, so there is no weight advantage in getting the carbon one.

I have 2 questions:

1. Will the carbon bike be significantly more comfortable on longer rides in peoples experience? If I thought there would be a big difference in comfort I would probably go for the carbon option.

2. Will the higher quality alu frames be a harsher ride than the Boardman I currently have due to increased stiffness factor?

I've never ridden a carbon bike, am currently trying to arrange a test ride on one but all my local LBS's seem to be in process of switching stock over for the new year.

Cheers

FransJacques

Get the carbon. There are no rules of thumb between 2 alu frames, you really do have to ride them side by side to get an idea. Can you do this in your case? Rose don't have UK points of sale so you might struggle unless you know someone with one.

THink of a carbon frame with cheaper parts as something worthy up upgrading over the next 2-3 years. Esp something as nice as a Canyon. Nothing wrong with the Rose but carbon does have a great ride and provides lots of feedback and stiffness.

I know it's hard NOT to read stuff into the many bike reviews out there. Reviewers are really lazy and guilty (also at BR i'm sorry to say) of saying useless things like:

- "this bike has really small-diameter stays to reduce road vibrations". They don't know this for a fact, they're merely spouting marketing BS and creating expectations that we as buyers will not be able to confirm or deny before buying.

- "carbon dampens vibrations better than alu" as an axiom. There are few axioms that apply universally in this industry so buyer beware.

Remember that saddle type, bike fit, and tyre size, composition and pressure have A LOT more to do with comfort than whether your stays are 8mm diameter or 1.2 cm diamter. You cannot simply look at a frame and know which one is more comfortable than another. Laterally stif yet vertically compliant. Whoever first wrote that should be sent back to journalism school.

muzzan

Thanks for that, interesting stuff. Before I started looking seriously at this I assumed carbon frames were significantly lighter, but this is clearly not the case, and so I am still searching for what the tangible benefits of a carbon frame for me would be. "Feedback and stiffness": Stiffness I am only interested in slightly, I am not entering any races, so marginal performance gains are unimportant. Feedback sounds suspiciously like "road buzz", which I thought carbon would reduce?!? I have seen some carbon bikes described as giving a "vague" ride because they reduce the feedback?!?

I guess only way I will really know is by trying a carbon bike, though doubt I will be able to try the rose or canyon.

muzzan

So I got a test ride on a Cannondale Supersix today. Only half an hour, but what I thought:

Felt good bit quicker than the boardman
Ride felt quite lively to me, "comfortable" is not the word I would use, but certainly not uncomfortable either. Cant say I felt a great deal of difference from the boardman.
Geometry wise it felt fine, which was one of the things I was looking at because of the more aggressive geo. I think I have the boardman set up quite "aggressively" anyway.
Group was 105 & honestly, its hard for me to justify £200-£300 more for Ultegra, shifting felt fine to me.

Not exactly conclusive, but I realise the benefits of Carbon may be only discernible after a decent amount of time in the saddle, so a brief test ride is only going to help so much.

Overall, I may be leaning towards the Carbon option as much as to try it out & see for myself.

FransJacques

You just hit on another personal favourite of mine and one I've not ridden for 3-4 years ( or 2 iterations ago) but the SuperSix really piques my interest for my next bike as one that does almost all things well without being a specialist of any.

I agree stiffness isn't important if you're a mile-eater but when you're up for some lively riding it's nice to know your Canyon SL or Super6 is also up for the challenge.

Don't worry about getting a bike "above your station". Most 4x4s are not driven off-road but people like driving them in the city. A Dogma 2 is a great bike just to commute to work on, b/c it give you a major grin just to tool around on it, even tho you're not riding it to the nth degree.

styxd

I'd get neither and go for this

http://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/bike.html?b=3080

muzzan

I have at one time or another considered most configurations of the Canyon Ultimate AL's & CF's.... any reason why that one beats the others (esp the carbons?)

styxd

It was just the one that seemed to fit your budget.

I'd have it over the one you linked to any day of the week. Lighter, better groupset and proper Ksyriums.

As for comfort, its got one of those VCLS posts, which are supposed to be comfy.

But honestly, the talk of "comfort" is just marketing bollox used to sell bikes to middle aged men.

If you set your bike up correctly (i.e. so it fits you properly) and your saddle is right for your arse, then you should be able to ride any bike all day long and not be in pain.

Obviously some materials/tube shapes/wall thicknesses dampen road vibrations more than others, but it doesnt make that much difference.

muzzan

So I take it you have owned both carbon & aluminium road bikes & on balance think there is no real advantage carbon has, so may as well go for the al frame with better components? It seems there is no real consensus on this & only way is to find out for yourself. Decisions decisions....

Neale1978

Its not just about comfort or vibration reduction although that does happen to an extent. Carbon fibre combined with the right frame/fork design and layup just feels better to ride than aluminium and thats that (Yes ive had both)

If you get the chance to try it then do it i say

styxd

muzzan wrote:

So I take it you have owned both carbon & aluminium road bikes & on balance think there is no real advantage carbon has, so may as well go for the al frame with better components? It seems there is no real consensus on this & only way is to find out for yourself. Decisions decisions....

Of course, I've owned a fair few different bikes. The worst was an alu frame suprisingly! But it was cheap and shite. It was fairly harsh to ride, I still completed 100mile+ rides on it though.

I also had a a comfortable carbon frame. And another comfortable carbon frame that was stiffer. And a steel frame that was flexy etc. etc.

The bottom line is, its difficult for anyone to say unless they have ridden both of the specific frames in question.

All I know is a alu canyon is apparently the best/one of the best alu frames about. And both the carbon and alu ones are/have been raced by the very best professionals.