Originally Posted by
mzeffex
It's not a coke can frame or of equal weight of the carbon. It's heavier and thicker. It's no CAAD frame by any means. That said, if I have my bike and just drop it on a barricade, I'm pretty sure that out of these two frames, the carbon wouldn't be as good. Maybe it wouldn't crack it, but a chip is something to be concerned about. The aluminum might have a small dent, maybe not. Either way, like I said, it's not a beer can frame.
Another problem with CF is that chip or scratch can prime the frame for catastrophic failure. Meaning that, again, you can be riding along and ZING! no more bike frame. That's not to say you shouldn't buy a CF bike - but touting as whoever was doing for its resistance to crash damage is crazy. Fortunately crossers tend to crash on soft ground - I've read horror stories about carbon crit bikes being written off after trivial crashes on tarmac.