Hello all-
I'm in the process to buy a new bike to replace my TREK 1500 and I'd like to have your opinion.
As I'm shopping, i receive different comment about low entry carbon bike. For instance, I'm looking for a Tarmac or a Kuota Kharma (around 2400$ CAN) but some people told me that at that price, I should forget the carbon and go with alu.

So what is your opinion, is it true that if you want all the carbon benefit (weight, stifness, vibration absortion) you need to pay 3500$ and +.

What you're asking about is NOT a quality issue. Quality simply means conformance to specifications.

The higher priced frames use carbon with greater strength and stiffness, so they can be laid up with less material and made lighter, but the tradeoff is additional cost. Of course a lot of the additional cost is merely what the market will bear, not the actual additional cost to manufacture the frame. When a $3000 frame goes on closeout, it may be sold for only $2000 and even at that price the seller isn't losing money. You can get a $3000 LOOK 585 for about $2200 on E-bay, brand new. The seller isn't doing this on a regular basis to lose money.

The only frames I would avoid are some of the real low priced no-name frames. Even some of the higher priced brands, like Cervelos aren't built all that great. One of my criteria is removable bearing seats in the head tube, if the frame uses an integrated headset. Other acceptable options are internal headsets with press fit cups or a conventional headset like Colnago still uses.