C

Hmmmm.
That's the sound I usually make when I'm thinking of something.
Okay, not really.
That's the letters I usually think of when I'm thinking of something.
I don't really make a sound when I'm thinking.
Well, not unless you count the sound of potato chips being consumed.
Before, thinking would be accompanied by a slurping sound and a lot of burping and aluminum being crushed in addition to potato chips being consumed, but that was in another life.
There's two C words!
Can and chips.
This post is about neither.
It's about the elements.
Or one element to be exact, one of the most common elements around and one that's a building block of life as we know it.
No, it's not hydrogen.
That begins with the letter H.
It's carbon silly.
A common building block of bicycles as we know it.
Oh yes, the carbon goodness.
Can't live with it, can't live without it.
Oh wait.
That's something totally different.
Anyways, I've been thinking, in a Hmmmm sort of way, about carbon bicycles.
Seems like everybody's got one, why can't we?
Have a carbon bike I mean.
The first time I ever heard of carbon fibre as a structural component, or as the French pronounce it, carbone feebray, was back when I used to subscribe to Autoweek and followed F1 racing.
Oh the days of the thousand horsepower turbo rocket sled and Senna and Prost and Ferrari and McLaren and Lotus and Williams and carbon fibre.
In those days, Cosworth Ford was still keeping up with Honda, though I doubt that's the case now.
The cars got lighter and more powerful until finally, the FIA had to set minimums in weight and horsepower.
Sort of like what the UCI has to do with bicycles now.
Which is what makes carbon bicycles so appealing.
Cutting edge and all that.
Trickle down technology.
Of course you don't see F1 technology trickle down like bicycles, not really unless you count the Lotus Super 7.
This was of course before someone decided automobiles should be safe.
Anyways, I've been thinking of a carbon bicycle cause it's like what all the racers use and if carbon components are cool then a whole bicycle made outta carbon must be cooler.
Right?
I mean a car made out of carbon is like beyond cool:



So it follows that a carbon bicycle is just as if not more cooler.
Okay, the prancing horse thingy helps, and is like a GAGILLION times cooler than any bicycle logo.
Except maybe Bianchi.
Italian goodness don't you know.
There's a problem though.
A GAGILLION problems as that's how many carbon bicycle are out there.
Some made in the Far East no less.
Thank goodness for Dedacciai.
Which in Italian means something like "accept no substitutes" or maybe "anything less is inferior" or "bragging rights" or something like that.
The thing is, I sort of like the traditional frame, the horizontal top tube.
In my eyeballs, it just looks like what a bicycle should look like.
This is sort of strange for when I first started riding, I thought the slopey, curvy, swoopy carbon bikes were the bee's knees.
Maybe I been looking at too many old photos or something cause them newfangled bikes just don't float my (recum)boat no more.
Okay, maybe a couple of them do, but they are like astronomically priced and my feet unfortunately are planted firmly on terra firma.
Well, while on my Quest For Carbon, I came across something that derailed my search.
Captured my fancy.
Made me take notice.
Pulled the eyeballs outta my head.
So to speak.
Yes, bicicletta fans!
Another quest!
The Quest for the C(QFTC)!
Let me just say that C doesn't just stand for carbon.
Not even Cannondale.
Well, it does stand for Ciocc, but I already got one of those.
No, this is a whole different C, see?
Don't bother staying tuned for this one.
It may take a while.
I mean this is the stuff dreams are made of.
If you know what I mean.