Hi Guys,
I don't own a Calfee, but I must say I think the Calfee forum has the best discussions on BikeFanClub. Only in the Calfee forum can the discussion be just as much about Litespeeds and Serottas!
Allow me to add to this thread by saying that I own a ti Serotta Legend AND two Litespeeds - a 2004 Vortex custom and a 2001 Ultimate. I also have a prototype titanium Ritchey. I am a bike freak and a weekend racer with disposable income (i.e. no kids, no wife, no ex-wives), so I ride lots of different bikes and buy several new rides every year.
IMHO, my Serotta Legend Ti is the best bike I've ever ridden. Hands down. If I had to own only one bike, that would be it.
The Litespeeds and the Ritchey are also terrific. I bought a used 2001 Ultimate rather than a newer one because I think the carbon monostays on the newer ones are BOGUS. No matter what bull***t Litespeed puts in their ad materials, the carbon is only there for one reason - cost. It takes 3 years to train a master ti welder, whereas any high school kid can be trained to mix up a batch of epoxy and glue (i.e "bond") carbon tubes & lugs together on a jig in a few weeks. Using the carbon monostay reduces the number of welds on a frame by almost half.
I have owned a bunch of carbon bikes, but I no longer own any. I made this decision because I have personally experienced and witnessed too many unexplained catastrophic failures of carbon structures in other sports (windsurfing, skiing, motor sports). Warranties are great, but they don't do you much good if you're dead. I'm sure Airbus has a great warranty on the carbon tail section which sheared off that American Airlines Airbus jet climbing out of LaGuardia 2 years ago, resulting in a crash which killed all aboard.
Going by laboratory specs, carbon is by far the best material for bike frames and components. So if I ever decide to buy a bike only to ride in a laboratory, it'll definitely be carbon.
I use aluminum handlebars, seatposts, stems, wheels, and cranks. I prefer Thomson stems and seatposts, they're a little heavy but they are machined out of a one-piece billet. No welds to mysteriously fail. I use AlphaQ forks with titanium steerer tubes. There is no carbon on any of my bikes except the fork tines, which I reluctantly use because there really are no reasonable alternatives available. But I do examine the carbon tines before every ride for any nick or scratch that goes even remotely beyond "cosmetic".
Those are my opinions, choices, and experiences. I realize posting such thoughts in a (carbon) Calfee forum is like posting Hamas philosophy in a synogogue, so thanks for listening.
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"I haven't failed. I've just managed to find 100,000 ways that don't work"
--Albert Einstein
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