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opinions on the difference would be appreciated.. worth the cost? real percieved vibration dampening? durability in small travel xc bike?
i know the difference on the road between aluminum and carbon as it is miles apart..
thanks in advance....

 

[used2Bhard]

eesh

Question... Are you looking at just the frame or the complete bike? If you are looking at the complete bike, the parts spec alone would make it worth it in my mind.

If you are just going frameset....That's a tough one.....

I had a carbon HT last season. I noticed stiffer bottom bracket area while pedaling, and stiffer front end. It felt like it pedaled on its own sometimes.... The vibration damping was hard to tell. It took the real high frequency stuff away a bit, but the increased stiffness made the hard hits....harder.

As far as durability, it's going to last longer (fatigue), and if properly built it will be stronger on a hard front end hit as well. The only area I had issues was with technical rock gardens. I had a couple rocks that my tire kicked up strike the chain stays on nasty steps and it tore into the carbon, whereas it would have just scraped and maybe dented in the aluminum a bit. I also had my tire kick up a big rock and hit the tube near the BB and put in a good gash. A protector behind the front wheel would add a fair amount of weight.

If I had a geared bike for training and trail rides I would have gone carbon in an instant. I would race it and ride it on less rocky rides rides. However, there are many nasty technical rides that i love to do where the HT SS just won't cut it.

I can't afford a full stable, and I know I would ruin my frame sooner or later. The Alum frame is also cheap enough that I can e-bay/pro-deal my way into a new frame every year for a couple hundred bucks and never worry about breaking one. I went for aluminum for that reason.

I also have a hard time believing it's one lb lighter. I think 4.5/4.7 lbs for a medium (versus 5.2 for mine) is reasonable.

 

[LyNx]

Use2Bhard summed it up pretty wel for carbon vs alu. Personally the price between the carbon vs alu frameset is rediculous IMHO and as U2BH said the alu takes the beating a bit better without having to worry too much about dents/dings in the material. I'd vote Alu frameset.

 

[used2Bhard]

Price..

The race team deals on the Carbon are actually reasonable, but retail sucks.... I could not afford it. My buddy ordered one throug his team, so I'll have a reliable weight in the next month or so.

 

[used2Bhard]

huh?

I was doing a search for some carbon goodies, and the search engine brought up this exact same thread on 4 different manufacturer boards, with the exact same question.... Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, and Giant.....

Trying to pick out a new race frame for next year? If so don't get the alu Rush. I had one and it's a pig. over 6 lbs, cable under the BB for crappy shifting, and either set up to bob or hard as a rock. I ran a scalpel before that and was trying to get some more suspension for rough courses. The Alu Rush was not the answer.

 

[[email protected]]

you are very aware

really, just trying to get the carbon versus aluminum vibe. have a specialized roubaix road bike and the carbon ride is like magic! but and this is a big but i am not sure it will translate over to mtb'ing. rode the new carbon advanced trance around a few roads, friend has one, and it felt stiffer in the head tube than my trance 1 aluminum version and did seem to diffuse the buzz of small vibrations, but not sure that really matters in the long run. will a few psi in my tubeless really make the ride in reality very close??? who knows...lol
i realize the cannondale is a high single pivot and i will never ride one of those again, so just putting out feeler on someone who has owned both.

 

[wannabeRacer]

save up and wait for it to arrive and buy carbon. We all gonna look like carbon oneday, even your skin will be carbon using carbon skin spray. Thier a thing of beauty and technically to look at.