All? Which one?
You are a bigger bike geek than I am. I'd like to hear what you have to say.
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All.
Sheldon Brown can tell you here:
Frame Materials for the Touring Cyclist
Regarding bike companies being able to take any material and make it ride pretty close, that would only be doable if your target ride quality is what's considered to be unrefined. To tune a bike to higher standards, trying to get everything you want in the ride feel, it takes really advanced metallurgy, if you want to deal with metal. Think mastercrafted katana level, except in 3D. Aluminum alloy has gotten to the "super plastic" or "air formed" stage, which offers more manipulation control over hydroforming. Steel and Ti seem to rely on the source quality, with steel's ride quality coming from the bike specific tubesets (various lines from Tange, Reynolds, Columbus, etc.), perhaps with some tube diameter options such as 1" Ti stays for extra stiffness. In blind tests, some actually say that they prefer the ride of lower end cromoly tubesets. Custom builders would need to know your weight, among other things, to be able to deliver a ride quality that they find desirable, as someone 50 lbs heavier riding on the same frame might not like it as much or feel that they are experiencing a signature ride feel that was hyped up by others who also own them. Another material might be more sensitive to the weight difference, or the material might be subject to fatigue failure sooner, since the forces put on it are beyond its "endurance limit". Perhaps down the line with 3D printing advancements it may happen, but that's not nowadays.
Carbon has potential to pretty much can give it all, as long as a lot of thought is put into the design. Bikes from various materials feel distinctively different, even from the same brand. Right now, using sheets of commonly available prepreg carbon and laminating using molds, vacuum bagging, autoclaves, etc. is a very simple process that can be replicated on "hand-made mass production" scale, but there are ways to craft carbon fiber that are even more elaborate. Using massive carbon looms is merely a step up from prepreg laminates. There's been some thermoplastic and there's been some matrix composites, and higher tech resins. You can even
tailor in other fibers that aren't carbon, such as HT-HM fibers such as M5, Spectra, Dyneema, Kevlar, Zylon, Vectra, etc. These are already being used in some sports equipment, but can't be processed like carbon, for reasons such as increased difficulty in cutting some of them. Basically, ways to address all of carbon's weaknesses, such as its cost, how labor intensive it is, how brittle it is at high modulus, etc. There's a whole lot more steel and aluminum being made today; I think a recent estimate was like 32000x more tons of steel (1.6bill) than carbon fiber (50k), but then again carbon fiber is light. It really has the potential and if it grows, it might just replace these materials in many applications.
The bike industry needs to make money and they find what sells. Aesthetics sadly play a big role in what sells. The market is hot for the latest and greatest and that's what companies target to improve their brand name. I'm guilty for liking a nice looking bike, and looking to see if it comes equipped with many of the latest trends (ex. dropper post, 1x11, enduro features, short stem, wide bars, steep SA, slack HA, short stays, low center of gravity, piggy back shock, thru axles, etc.). Ones that look "familiar", and/or remind me of something I like, tend to score higher with me and my personal tastes. Having the performance and giving me the image I sort of expect with it, or beyond, is a clincher. While all these high end bikes get the media's attention and gets all the ooohs and ahhhs and discussion from consumers, that's merely for brand image and credibility; their bread and butter is likely "mainstream" or "value" bikes in the 1000-3500 range. The bike industry makes what sells, simple as that. They haven't yet even got into Ferrari level, IMO, despite these 10k+ bikes out there. It's cool to look like a Ferrari though, hence why people go goo-goo over nice paint jobs such as the ones seen on Niner bikes. Such reactions are warranted though, considering the lengths they go (
see a peek at their improved painting process).
Anyways, in regards to the topic, it's a crap shoot at this price range. Read lots of reviews and don't ignore bad reviews which have valid objective complaints about the bike and the brand's support behind it. On-One is a brand that delivers great value at their price points, mainly because they have real engineer(s)
with passion behind the designs and they sell direct to consumers online. Good design and value tend to come from passionate folks, at least compared to greedy money making folk. You can trust them to deliver a relatively good deal. The rest is a matter of discovering your own tastes in what you want, as I'm sure you are overwhelmed by all the options. Generally, the simple thing to do is to get something very similar to what closest riding buddies seem to be having long term fun on.