Carbon Bike - anything I need to know?

[torqueofthedevil]

Just looking at getting a decent road bike. I have ridden a 1970's / 80's Peugeot for the last 8 years but somewhat intermittently.

I ride up and down a lot of hills and quite often over poor roads / cobbles (never off-road).

Looking to get a bike around £1000 but that crept up to £1250 for a Trek 2.3. Then I see that a carbon trek is only a few hundred quid more.

It just got me thinking - carbon sounds very fragile! Could i damage it by going over very rough roads? Im used to throwing my bike in the shed after a ride! Of course I'd look after the carbon bike more but do they need to be wrapped in cotton wool and really looked after?

Cjheers.

[Gizmoish]

They're very strong. Pros ride Paris Roubaix after all.

But the 'problem' with carbon is that a small crack or failure is likely to be terminal...

[Jimbo.]

Gizmoish said:

They're very strong. Pros ride Paris Roubaix after all.

But the 'problem' with carbon is that a small crack or failure is likely to be terminal...

To be fair, the same can be said of aluminium bikes.

Carbon's fine. I *personally* am not a far of cheap carbon: I'd rather a "very good" aluminium over an "acceptable" carbon, but that's just me.