Save it or use it?

joule said:

Am new to racing... well actually used to many years ago but now getting back into it as an excuse to improve my health. Anyway I'll probably start doing some cat 5 races this coming 2005 season and wonder if it's really smart to use my carbon bike for such an event. My concern here is the accidents the inveriably occur during the race and the risk of destroying my carbon bike. For me it's not about whether I win the race, more about the experience of getting to the shape so I can. Problem is my old racing bike is REALLY old. Is in great shape and was a competitive bike for it's time, but let's face it.. a mid 70's racing bike (10 speed Colnago super) is not in the same league as my all carbon speedster. So that brings me to the question of using the new bike and risk damage to the frame, get yet another bike for racing, or use the old Colnago? Course if I get the chance to do a time trial, it's a no brainer.. use the best. If it's get another bike... I can hear my better half groaning now.

It's all a matter of what sort of risks you want to take. Plenty of people race crits, even cat 5 crits, on expensive carbon bikes. Modern carbon bikes are very strong. And your body is probably going to take more damage than your frame in a big crash. It is possible, in addition, to repair a carbon frame with a sleave. But do you want to take the chance? It's up to you. You could probably get a good AL frame for $300 on eBay. I got an AL Giant TCR with a Reynold Ouzo Pro for $350 on roadbikereview.com. That way you could at least have you're piece of mind.

Just stay away from $300 carbon bars.

haha, dude, use the oldie man, all the way. I wish I had an old bike I could do that with. In the flat crits, you only use like 3,4 gears at the max, so why not. Once you get it moving, it'll go. Esp in a Cat 5 race, theres a lot of dumb stuff going on there, not that I'm super racer, I'm only a 4, and stupid stuff happens there too.

joule said:

Am new to racing... well actually used to many years ago but now getting back into it as an excuse to improve my health. Anyway I'll probably start doing some cat 5 races this coming 2005 season and wonder if it's really smart to use my carbon bike for such an event.

Why did you get a carbon racing bike if not to race? Ride it!! There is not a very high probablity of damaging your frame in a bike race anyway. Stop thinking about crashing and start thinking about winning. Save your old Colnago for easy Fall rides through the countryside while wearing that old wool jersey you know you still have.

packmagician said:

Why did you get a carbon racing bike if not to race? Ride it!! There is not a very high probablity of damaging your frame in a bike race anyway. Stop thinking about crashing and start thinking about winning. Save your old Colnago for easy Fall rides through the countryside while wearing that old wool jersey you know you still have.

Expensive wheels are more of a risk. Frames seem to make it through most crashes. The death rate for wheels in a crit though is high.

Yea, I say go with the carbon , even if you were to crash the frame would probably not get damaged, the parts that would make contact with the ground are the handlebars/shifters, WHEELS, pedals, seat, rear derailleur perhaps. The chances of cracking the frame are slim and it would have to be a pretty hard crash for it to happen.

chriskaiser said:

Yea, I say go with the carbon , even if you were to crash the frame would probably not get damaged, the parts that would make contact with the ground are the handlebars/shifters, WHEELS, pedals, seat, rear derailleur perhaps. The chances of cracking the frame are slim and it would have to be a pretty hard crash for it to happen.

Yes, when wheels get damaged in crits, it's usually from getting run over by other riders during a crash. I'd say it's just as likely, if not more so, in road races. After 30+ years of racing, I think I've had two broken spokes and one crash where my wheels got rolled over during criteriums. I absolutely use my fastest wheels on any crit course with a decent road surface. (Actually, I'd probably use them on a bad road surface too.) That's what they are for! I don't ride my racing wheels for training. For that I use regular 32-spoke wheels that are easy to service and repair and inexpensive to replace.

Thanks! After thinking about it I think I'll forego getting a moderately priced bike and just put the bucks into a nice set of wheels in a few months. Was planning to get a set of racing wheels anyway and think it's better spent there and going ahead and using the carbon bike. Really could not see using the old Colnago anyway since really could not get or make a reasonable fast set of wheels for it.