racing bike materials

racing bike materials
what materials are road racing bikes made out of?

I need to know what road racing bikes are made out of, and what they’ve been made out of in the past…if you know that too…or a website with this info would be just as useful =)

Carbon is the newest trend. It is cheap to make, but it looks cool; and the bikes are popular, and expensive right now. Titanium is still very expensive to make, and is much more expensive than carbon. Ti looks, and rides well like steel but is as light as carbon. Titanium, however is a rare, and an expensive metal, or element. Carbon is plastic, and can be cheaply manufactured. I have carbon paddles for a kayak, that are nice like some of the bikes, and they were dirt cheap. If you made the kayak handle out of titanium, it would have cost more than the kayak. I just can’t see paying a lot of money for a plastic bicycle, but I’m sure Trek, Specialized, and all of their reps, and sales people would be quick to put up a good argument, and a lot of marketing to tell you different. I’m sure the carbon bikes are good now because they are popular. The first ones in the 90′s were expensive like titanium, and they broke, while those old titanium bikes are still on ebay for $1000. You can get a cheap new aluminum road race bike for a grand, or you can get an older expensive Eddy Merckx steel road race bike for a grand. You decide what you want to ride. I ride steel, and I use the internet as a tool to help me live in the past, because it just keeps getting better.