What would you choose

I Love Ti
I have a Look 555 Carbon that is a very nice bike, but after a couple of incidents I have been put off carbon.

Firstly when I went to the Sierra Nevada’s in Spain to ride last year and had to pack it up for the flight it became apparent quite how fragile carbon is when not in it’s intended mode. It made it okay, but I did strip the frame down to almost component pieces and used an entire reel of bubble wrap and a semi hardcase. The frame is just so easy to damage.

Secondly I was involved in an accident with a car on it. A car pulled out from a side road in front of me, saw me and stopped across my lane. I managed to skid the bike sideways and hit the car broadside with mostly my shoulder and leg. The wheels both buckled due to the sideways skid, but the frame was un-marked. It was still written off as no-one could confirm any internal damage short of returning it to Look for an xray, which is prohibitively expensive. The bike appears okay, but I don’t fancy trusting it on a 55mph descent that is part of most of my rides.

I therefore bought a Litespeed Icon Ti, and apart from the feeling of permanence you get from Ti, it is better than the Look in all ways (alright it’s quite a bit more expensive too), very much more comfortable, sprints and climbs better, and looks like a proper bike!

I’ve never found carbon very comfortable, it may smooth out very small high frequency ripples, but in the real world it is pretty unforgiving unlike Ti, which is like steel in it’s give, but lighter. Frame design has as much to do with it as material, but a well made Ti is a better bike than a well made carbon in my book…

Well it sounds like you’ve

Well it sounds like you’ve already ruled out the Cervelo and the the reasons you give are the right ones – if you’re not confident about cutting down the steerer don’t do it (on the other hand maybe you could get your lbs to do it for you?) plus spending that amount of money on a bike you cannot try is a bit of a gamble even on something as good as the Cervelo.

The best bet would be to try both the bikes – the Cannondale is a tasty, okay very tasty bike…  and with Cannondale you generally get a lot for your money these days, but titanium is special. I’ve only every seen one Sabbath bike and I’ve never had any dealings with them, but the guy testing it thought it was a peach.

In the past I’ve asked most of the bike journos I know what type of frame material they would chose if they were spending their own money and in most cases the answer is titanium – it lasts. 

Don’t let that sway you though – go and try the bikes!