Bike porn

Carbon fibre bikes, when full of top end components and clearly set up for the pro tour circuit are porn in my book - in a kind of utilitarian bling way.

I was having a bit of a think while watching the Giro yesterday though - the idea behind bike porn for me is the craftsmanship that's gone into a frame; the welds, the detailing, the finish - I'm not sure you can get that on a carbon fibre bike. It kind of hit me when I saw Juan Mauricio Soler's Bianchi - Bianchi were always about heritage, history and craftsmanship. A carbon fibre frame doesn't really do that for me - it's probably been formed in a factory in Taiwan.

Where's the soul in that?

You need some lugged, Italian made carbon with horizontal top tube. Like Erik Zabel's 2008 TDF bike. (repost)