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In truth, non-specific purposes.
If you want to buy a new bike, get whatever you fancy. You don't need us to tell you how to spend your entertainment budget. Don't expect to go amazingly fast just because you've lashed out a ton of cash on a new toy. On Sunday I did a 10:57 lap on my 14kg MTB on a circuit where my PB is 10:10 on a <7kg carbon road bike, and there was bovine interference on the MTB lap :-)
gbj_tester-
Ahh, by non-specific I meant I was looking at materials in a general sense rather than a bike for general riding - I've no idea what my next n+1 will be or be for at this stage. But if I'm buying a bike for going fast on, it seems daft to buy something that wont maximize that fastness. Either through power transfer, aerodynamics or handling. I guess there's two things going into this:
1) I've never owned a carbon bike and aesthetically I tend to prefer simple steel/alloy frames
2) I don't want to feel that I'm missing out, especially if I want to factor performance into a buying decision.So other than the general adage of 'good alu > cheap carbon', is there any reason to look at anything other than carbon? Do I need to go the lofty heights of 953 before steel is competitive? Or do I need to accept that buying a steel/alloy/ti bike will always involve a bit of heart over head? (which I'm totally ok with, I'd just like to know that that's truly the case)
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Dorney Common?
Ptown
Constable_Savage
Going fast purposes? In truth, non-specific purposes.
I guess I'm looking for a general rule here, or for examples where metal bikes would be a justified choice. I like owning metal bikes but if I'm looking at buying something specifically to go fast on (road, track, mtb, whatever), and something to go faster on is my mental justification for buying it, it'd seem daft if I then bought something intrinsically not as good for racing on.