Would a relative beginner notice the difference if he bought a carbon fibre framed bike? and would said hypothetical bike make him faster?

A seemingly innocent question which was posed recently on one of the most popular UK-based cycling forums in the section specifically for beginners to our sport / hobby. A reasonable enough question for a beginner to ask in such a place you would think, and exactly the sort of query that section of the forum was designed for. A place for the neophytes of the two-wheeled world to come for a bit of sage advice from the grizzled veterans of the road, a place were those who had paid their dues to the gods of wind, rain and gravel rash and were still technically adept enough to be able to use a keyboard and the internet could share their wisdom with others.

The post quickly drew responses and within the space of a few days the thread had grown to three pages long and took me a good half hour to quickly skim through. Foolishly having read the initial topic title on the forums index page I naively wondered if as a serial buyer of bikes of different frame flavours I might have something to contribute to the debate……….

I don’t propose to recount the whole argument in detail, it would take too long and mean having to re-read the whole bile-fest which would be another half hour of my life which I’d never get back. Suffice to say some folks think carbon fibre is the only frame material choice for absolutely anybody who rides a bike more than once, while for some its over hyped mass-produced dross that feels horrid to ride and costs far too much. There were variations on these general opposing positions but I’m sure you get the idea.

Three pages of some really quite opinionated and at times personal arguments make for a strangely compelling  read, like one of those awful reality TV shows which you find your self watching by accident late at night but unable to turn off until you find out who slept with who and if the lost gerbil ever got found. It wasn’t the opinions and conflicting advice which kept me plowing on to the end of the thread, but the way in which the unknown protagonists were coming back at each other, landing verbal blow after blow, refusing to back down or countenance defeat until they felt they had each had the last word.

I mean it was fairly obvious from the first few posts that the main players in the thread were simply never going to agree or even pretend to respect each others views. I never realised frame material could be so polarising or controversial, but it’s clearly a subject that these internet road warriors took very seriously. (mind you having user names like ‘carbonking’ and ‘531c Till I Die’ should have warned me that there would be no meeting of minds…….)

Well after a couple of entertaining evenings of watching the war of the frame material ebb and flow across my iPad screen it appeared like many minor conflicts across the globe this one had petered out without any clear winner, but with all sides claiming victory and the moral high ground.

What drives people to behave on an internet forum in ways which they would never dare to in real-life? Undoubtably the remoteness of the experience and the anonymous nature of interacting with your fellow-man via a keyboard and a screen allows people the freedom to express their selves without fear of physical reprisals. Cyberspace is a great leveler, on a forum a seven stone weakling can call a six-foot man mountain an idiot without losing his front teeth nano-seconds later. Always stuck for that witty comeback in face to face arguments? does the perfect riposte only usually come to you hours later in the bath leaving you brimming with impotent rage? – No problem on a forum, put the kettle on while you ponder and craft the perfect comeback at your leisure!

Of course the world of the forum also makes it possible for a certain amount of inflation of individual  prowess to take place. It’s amazing how many people can clear a 30 foot road gap, call the most extreme black runs ‘tame’ or churn out sub 20 minute 10 mile TT’s every weekend.  On some road racing forums everyone could have turned pro if they hadn’t had that unfortunate injury as a junior. People rack up post counts in the thousands dispensing expertise on every aspect of the cycling world from the best way to glue on a tubular to which flat pedals give most grip.

However, it’s not all bad. If it was I certainly wouldn’t keep logging in occasionally and neither would most people. The forums would all be left to a handful of nutters blessed with olympian levels of selfbelief. There are threads of genuinely good advice, funny stories, useful information on routes and invaluable technical help. They can be a place to learn, take advice and give it in turn, and so long as people don’t let winning the argument become the most important thing ever, they can be a pleasant place to waste half an hour during your lunch break.

Ohhhhh, and the carbon fibre question? well everyone knows titanium frames are faster………….