There's No Good Reason to Buy a Carbon Bike
There's No Good Reason to Buy a Carbon Bike
The pro racers who do need carbon fiber bikes get them for free. Only the people who don’t need them actually pay for them.
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Nobody here has mentioned the climate impact of choosing carbon fiber over steel.
Starling Cycles, a rare producer of steel mountain bikes, concluded that a typical carbon frame uses 16 times more energy than a steel frame.
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/02/can-we-make-bicycles-sustainable-again/
Of course, any bicycle will be more sustainable than a car. But we're in a climate crisis, and that means taking extreme measures, including considering whether even low-impact tools like bicycles could be even more sustainable. We can't afford to be completely uncritical of any technology.
Yep. At least steel and aluminum (ooo titanium) can be produced, & recycled, using electric arc furnaces.