One of the leading FB comments is perfect: āWow, this is a timely and relevant article from Bicycling Magazine in 1996!ā
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Ditto, that one may be the winner IMO. 
He seems like some kind of urban bike blogger. I stay away from those types. 
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For those who donāt know (and Iām absolutely not defending him, I havenāt even read the article), Bike Snob NYC was one of the big bicycle bloggers like 20 years ago. He wrote a few popular books and would get published in mags like Bicycling. IIRC, he was the grumpy cat of bicycling.
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Iām really tired of āNobody needs ā articles. More click/ragebait from Outside.
There are lots of great reasons to buy a carbon bike, starting with āI want a carbon bike.ā All the other reasons are secondary after that. You donāt need to justify your bike preferences to anyone other than whoever you share a budget with.
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I wish Iād read your response before I wrote mine. What you said 110%.
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I actually love your take too. A personal pet peeve of mine lately is negativity at so many levels. That seems to parallel a theme of āIf I donāt need it, nobody else should either!ā that is all too common these days.
Make your choice and move on. I canāt see the need to criticize even the mere presence of options that others might find worthy just because itās not what one person wants for themselves. Nonsense at best, narrow sighted & prejudiced at worst.
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You stay away from those types literally because of this person, he created the genre!
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Amen. Thereās a reason Baskin Robbins makes 31 flavors.
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Funnily enough, if my carbon frame cracks, then Iāll get it repaired. If I had an aluminum frame that cracks, then the bike is trashed.
Well, well, wellā¦how the turntables.
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Not missing much. One of his better-known books is Bike Snob: Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling. Iām sorry that I actually brought it and started reading it on a flight. I got only a few pages in before putting it away in the seat pocket in front of me. Luckily, I forgot it, and Iām sorry to those who cleaned up after me.
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Isnāt he the one who did those hardman rules of cycling? Schmuck.
And more directly on topic: as a former Luddite who wept for his thumbshifters, said Steel is Real unironically for way too long, and has owned an early 90s De Rosa, along with custom Davidson, Fat Chances, various Serottas, and other fancy steel bikes ā¦ Pfffffft. Modern carbon bikes are really freaking nice.
My carbon Giant Revolt with Sram AXS and 700x50c tires is maybe the coolest bike Iāve ever owned. It can go pretty much anywhere, and do it as fast as I can make it go. I donāt have to think about it at all, just ride it.
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I think thereās no good reason for reading anything published by Outside.
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Iād rather read an article entitled āThereās No Good Reason To Read Anything From Outsideā.
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I bought a cheap revolt (revolt 1? I think) to live on my trainer and for a once-in-a-blue-moon unpaved ride, and itās a remarkably comfortable bike.
The Hardmen: Legends and Lessons from the Cycling Gods by The Velominati? Or Frank Strack? His articles on www.velominati.com suggest he is preaching and, thus, a nutcase, but I could be wrong. I normally use rules #5 and #42 to make fun of others and myself.
Oh! Thatās right, it wasnāt the BikeSnobNYC guy, thanks for catching that. I donāt want to be maligning him for the wrong thing. Theyāre two entirely different schmucks. 
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TL;DR
You only need oxygen, water, food and shelter from elements, absolutely everything else is optionalā¦ Like I tell my kindsā¦ you dont need itā¦ you want it.
and since the author is giving an opinionā¦ I will give mineā¦ There is no good reason to own a bike worth more than $50.
See, everyone can have bad takesā¦ and it doesnt matterā¦
buy what you want and canā¦ and be happy.
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Carbon is really the ideal material for just about any type of vehicle (except for submersiblesš) due to the ability to create complex shapes that would be otherwise be difficult/impossible/too heavy/too fragile with metal.
Bikes are an especially good candidate for carbon because theyāre priced quite high relative to the cost of manufacturing and bill of materials. And despite their high efficiency, they are low performance vehicles (20mph average), so theyāre able to be manufactured to fairly sloppy tolerances compared to other vehicles.
Carbon molds are not expensive to make - theyāre made out of aluminum, the easiest to cut of all metals, unlike plastic injection molds that are usually made of hardened steel. Carbon prepreg cloth can be pricey but bikes donāt use much of it. Labor is cheap. Scrap rate is near zero, as manufacturers ship bad frames all the time.
When hippies like the author of that article complain about carbon, theyāre really just complaining about the price, largely a result of corporate greed, not the nature of carbon itself. Then again, plenty of name brand carbon bikes arenāt even that expensive. The Canyon Grizl, for example.
I agree with the article in general, but his reasoning sounds like a campaign against or someone who had a bad experience with carbon. Most of my favorite cycling memories happened on steel bikes and my last 2 builds were steel. That being said, I love my SuperSix EVO 1. It is comfortable and makes me feel faster than I am. Itās all personal preference. Ride what makes you happy.
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