Crap ass Fiber

Most people who know me, already know, how I feel about how certain materials that are used on bicycles. I'm not the biggest fan of aluminum. I do think it's relatively safe however. Carbon fiber? well..that's another story. I honestly question the sanity of anyone who rides it. I'm sure some of it's out of ignorance. Many feel, If it's the latest in light materials what could be the harm? Some say, if it were dangerous, companies wouldn't use it. Boy are they misguided. Big bike companies mostly care about selling shit. In the quest to have the next new thing to trumpet, they quite often introduce unnecessary crap. For instance, carbon fiber brake levers or calipers. These are completely unnecessary and certainly no better than alloy. Perhaps worse actually, and in many cases much more expensive. Another example would be, who's faster? A guy with a 9-speed campy group or a guy with a 10 speed group? (answer) The guy with the strongest legs and largest lung capacity. A Lugs regular, Kate, forwarded me this sweet photo of a carbon fiber failure:

Ouch! I hate too see what that guys face looked liked after a few feet of pavement scraping. He's lucky he wasn't impaled.
I also have a favorite photo of a Giant TCR-1 that came into the shop recently. The kid wanted this fixed. In my mind this was, so he could go about the business of plotting his own timely demise. I told him I wouldn't be involved in that.

Photo #2

Searching around for more lovely photos, I came across the blog:
"Busted Carbon" which has tons of photos of broken carbon fiber components.
Here are a few for your viewing pleasure. I named the first one: "Balls in the Hospital"

This one is titled, " You Really Need to Get Your Facials Some Other Way "

I always cringe when people come in looking for carbon forks. My first question is, why? I've never gotten a straight answer. A common one is, I just like it better. Someone should cane these poor bastards before they hurt themselves.