squatchy

I have a titanium mountain bike and two carbon bikes. I only got back into biking last year. I have 2 s-works but still find myself looking at titanium road bikes all the time. I'm not sure if I'm looking at Ti road bikes because I'm not sure if I feel as if the carbon bikes maybe won't last for too long or if I just have the "disease" of wanting more bikes.

Do you guys feel like your carbon bikes will last as long as you want them around? Should I look at carbon as permanent as steel?

Nagrom_

:

Velo Vol 

Who can say?

gc3

Are they making bicycles with carbon frames already? Amazing...I love all the trickle down technology from NASA!

big john

omg

danmc

Yes, and I'm sleeping in a memory foam bed too! Thank God for all that astronauty stuff!

Cfiber

Only time will tell....

Given it's strength to mass ratio, I think CF is going to be around for a mighty long time!

rpenmanparker 

Let me get this straight: you are thinking of replacing carbon bikes with metal ones because they might not last as long as you want them to. So you are guaranteeing they won't last (for your purposes) by getting rid of them while they are still good. What, do you have to guard against a bike breaking on you because it would offend your sense of value? The question of comparative longevity is certainly valid if it is about buying one bike that must last forever for some reason. But just to say you have the longest lasting bike? That is a new one to me. Enjoy all the variety out there for what each type brings to the sport. When did it become about which material lasts the longest rather than about which one was most fun to ride?

Robert

Elduderino2412

carbon fiber is out, it's all about cardboard bikes now

Seattle Forrest

The steel bike I had crumpled like paper in a crash. I still have my carbon bike. I wish steel lasted as long as carbon.

rpenmanparker 

I just read that carbon lasts half as long as steel. OP is golden since he has two of the same bikes. He has the steel lifetime fully covered.

Nick Bain

its the diasease. n+1.

Kurogashi

I went bamboo. That stuff has been around for thousands of years.

TrojanHorse

It's better than that - he just got into "biking" last year and he's already up to 2 S-Works bikes and a mountain bike.

Well, at least you're not cheaping out on bikes there squatchy!

N+1 FTW!

Nick Bain

yeah and a few renovos.

hamster

Unless crashed, carbon will last longer than steel and possibly as long as titanium.

Provided that you also care for the bikes with minimal due diligence (e.g. not leaving outside in the rain, fixing chipped paint), all three are going to last long past the point when they become obsolete.

spectastic

IMO, titainum bikes are a marketing ploy. Who needs a bike made of aircraft alloy? If you're talking about durability, the only application to that is if you're in a crash, which hopefully doesn't happen to you on a regular basis. But even in the situation of a crash, depending on the situation, the bike frame is probably SOL, regardless of what it's made off. and I'm quite sure carbon fiber bikes aren't biodegradable or something like that, so you don't have to worry about it losing stiffness 10-20 years down the road, but I could be wrong.

btw. that's impressive that you have a titanium bike and two carbon fiber bikes after only 1 year of cycling. What do you do for a living?

pallen

Carbon Fiber bikes will far outlast the average BFer's bike attention span by 5 or 6 times at least. I know there are people on here who have kept bikes longer than 10 years, but I bet that is a small percentage.

rpenmanparker 

Seriously, a marketing ploy? No doubt no one needs titanium, but then no one really needs anything other than food, water, shelter, and a place to poop without bugs crawling up your butt. Having said that there are plenty of reasons to want Ti if you don't have it and appreciate it if you do. It is light, strong, tough, almost as fatigue resistant as steel and nearly totally impervious to corrosion, much more so than stainless steel. Nothing will withstand every crash, but Ti will withstand every other kind of abuse better than any other common bicycle construction material. Actually crashes are the one type of mishap that is not worth worrying about; there is nothing to be done about it. But there are plenty of other ways to damage a bike frame, and Ti will endure them as well or better than other currently used material. As for aesthetics, each to his own, but many agree that unpainted Ti is among the prettiest bike finishes available.

Ti isn't for everyone, but it is a highly desirable option to have in the bike frame market.

Robert

mprelaw

Yup. Here we go again.

wheelreason

Everything is temporary...

WhyFi

I find that memory foam mattresses are great for naps but horrible for sleeping overnight...

kc0bbq

Lets accelerate things a bit. Strip a steel frame and a carbon one and toss them in the ocean. Wait a couple months, rinse and rebuild. Ride a few hundred miles on each. Lather, rinse, repeat.

longbeachgary

Did you crash your carbon bike too?

StanSeven

Let's see. I replaced my five year old Ti bike with a CF one. Five years later I replaced that as my primary bike with another CF. Even though it's one year old, I'm thinking about what's next.

So why do I care about how long a material last. Each new bike makes me go 2 mph quicker and use 30 less watts going up hill. I figure another couple upgrades and you all can say you knew me on BF when I'm in the Tour