When it comes to seatposts, stems and bars, what advantages, if any, do carbon fiber parts offer? Other than lightening your wallet, of course...

Vibration damping.

If you are at the very top end of the sport and you are very fast and just as light as you can be while still being healthy and you are losing climbs by a few tenths of a second they might make a difference perhaps maybe.

Or not.

Besides all that - they look good!

Advantage? Some vibration damping and a tad lighter.

REAL advantage? None.

Aesthetic advantage? It looks nice but I still like the Ultegra seatpost Disco uses rather than my XXX Lite post on my Madone due to it's color.

Wallet advantage? DISadvantage since you'll be really light here.

If you can afford it and want it/really want it, then get it. Otherwise, don't. The 'advantages' are really not that worth the vast difference they cost vs. alu stuff. But then again, cyclist never do things with reason so get em if you want em' or wanna save up for em.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I don't really care about weight and I'm a cheap screw, so I don't envision myself buying lots of carbon stuff. But about the vibration dampening- how big a difference does carbon make? My bike already has carbon fork/steerer and chain/seatstays, so it seems to me that I'm probably already enjoying most of the vibration dampening I'm going to get.

I didn't notice any difference with my seat post. I had the generic carbon-wrapped alloy seatpost that Cannondale sends out with all of their CAAD 8 bikes. The shop swapped it out for a FSA SLK SB-0 during the fitting for $30; Otherwise, I probably would not have bought it.

People who've spent a lot of money will tell you it's a night-and-day difference.

People who are cheap or retro-grouches will tell you there's no difference at all.

The physics gear-heads will use a bunch of fancy words (and formulas, if you ask nicely) to say that the frequencies and strengths of the vibrations that they might effectively damp are already soaked up by the tires.

But they're really, really cool - and that's all that matters. :D

I didn't notice much vibration damping when switching from aluminum to carbon bars. Less than a switch from regular to gel bar tape.

of vibration dampening by letting say 8lb of air out of your tires or going to something like 25s filled to 100-105lb.

Hear, hear! A man who knows what is and is not important! "Retro-grouches"- I love it!

I already run 25s at 100 psi and things seem plenty smooth...which is why I was wondering if there was any more benefit to be had.

I already run 25s at 100 psi and things seem plenty smooth...which is why I was wondering if there was any more benefit to be had.
Negative. Well, I can feel a tiny difference between the carbon Kestrels and my AL bars.
By "tiny" what I mean is that I can feel it, just barely. The real reason I can feel it? The bars are wrapped better :rolleyes:
Seriously, I've got a carbon Kestrel EMS Pro, and I cannot feel any real difference, other than a minimal placebo effect, which may be all-bar-wrap. The reason I ride the Kestrels is their shape is very friendly to my hands. No other reason.
-estone2