Originally Posted by
flargle
And aluminum cracks, and carbon bends.
mzeffex does
not know that a carbon frame would fare better in a collision than an aluminum frame. A collision that "only" bent aluminum (and therefore compromised frame integrity because of aluminum's terrible fatigue resistance) would probably do nothing to the carbon frame except perhaps chipping some resin or paint, which is easily repaired and would not weaken the frame. A collision that cracked carbon would almost surely do the same to a Coke-can frame.
If the frames were of equal weight, smart money would be on the carbon frame.
http://www.calfeedesign.com/whitepaper4.htm
All of the above is utter bollocks with the exception of the point that cf has better strength to weight.* Fatigue resistance has VERY little to do with resisting crash damage or not! (And while pure alu may have relatively poor fatigue resistance, in the real world tubes are built out of carefully designed alloys.)
Beside its bollocksosity, it also misses the key point about CF and crash damage: the danger of
delamination. This can be invisible but leave your frame ready to snap in half at a later time for no apparent reason.
* Although even this doesn't mean that CF will do better than an alu frame of the same weight in a crash.
Strength is a measure of structure's ability to support weight, NOT to resist damage! A CF frame can be strong but still delaminate easily.