Commuting with Carbon

[Shaun]

Okay, give it a rest please - there's some interesting thoughts and posts in the thread, but we don't need to "do the math" to know a carbon bike will be okay for commuting and the tit-for-tat is an unnecessary distraction.

 

[KneesUp]

Is the headset well adjusted ?
A former bike of mine suffered a horrible cracking noise when going over any larger bumps, I was convinced the forks were going to fail .
Took it to my LBS and he properly adjusted the headset. It had seemed ok to me but as he explained, full carbon fork bungs sometimes require the front wheel to be given a firm bump on the floor to get everything to sit right while adjusting..
No problem after he did this.

Just a possibility for OP

Missed this amongst all the debate - I did think at one point it might be the headset but there was/is no play. It did the same on the way home and I traced it to my slightly slimmer 'work' water bottle sliding in the cage when going downhill and the thick plastic top thus being able to bang on to the down tube when the bike hits bumps. I pot the bottle in my bag and the worrying noises stopped immediately.

 

[Southside Mike]

My concern about using a carbon bike for commuting would be the fact that I have to leave it locked in a busy bike shed for hours when I get there.

Does carbon withstand getting hit by other bikes as people shove their old rust buckets alongside it as well as alu or steel? (genuine question btw - I don't know the answer)