I've got to declare my hand before I post ... I'm a definite fan of Cannondale bikes, and currently ride a Six13, a X6 cross bike and a Carbon Scalpel - all custom speced to suit my particular gear fetishes (ie., Campag and Sram ...)
For my 10c worth on the topics in this thread, try this:
- having started riding and racing on frame-fork combos that were well over the 2kg mark and were made out of floppy, flexy steel combos, I laugh every time someone complains about modern frame weights. Take a classic race bike of 15 - 20 years ago out for a spin and then see if you are really going to be so badly off on a "heavy" 1300g frame ...
- an interview with Ernesto Colnago on this site a few years back had a line like "everyone wants to climb on a sub 1kg frame, but no-one wants to descend on one". Having taken a Scott carbon TT bike for a test ride a few years ago - with a seat tube that you could flex by pushing into it with your thumb (yes, no exaggeration), I kinda get where Ernesto's coming from ...
- why the obsession with weight at the "gotta lose 100g" level? I can pretty much bet that everyone reading this thread could find an unnecesary 200g-500g (that's roughly 0.5lb - 1lb for you imperial types ....) to lose from the biggest single weight item on a bike - namely the rider! Why don't we worry about increasing the power:weight ratio of the engine - either get lighter or get stronger - rather than fiddling over frame weights and carbon fibre bottle cages with titanium mounting bolts?
- light often doesn't also equal reliable. Check out the story on another site by someone who has had pretty catastrophic problems with a really light carbon spoked wheel. I also can tell you of hassles on my MTB with a super light XTR front derailleur which warped because it couldn't handle the sort of heavy duty punishment that the old, heavy model that it replaced just swallowed up. That 20g sure as hell wasn't worth the subsequent hassle - not to mention the very slow ride back home in my granny ring!
- why the need for carbon in everything? Yes, I know that two of my bikes have carbon sections, but I'm also glad that they have as much alloy as they do as I prefer that ride. And you'd be surprised how many pros still ride alloy. My partner worked as a masseuse for a couple of teams a couple of years back and there is more metal in the peleton than you may think - and not for budgetary reasons either (eg., when a former world champ chooses to ride alloy while their team mates are all on carbon, you know that it's not a cost thing ...)
- be very careful of some of the weights that you read - and back what you read up by actually getting out and weighing the bikes and also taking them for a ride. Weight may or may not be as much of an issue in reality as it seems on paper depending on where it's distributed. An example of that is the Giant Trance that a friend of mine has. It feels heavy to lift, but something about the weight distribution means that you don't notice it that much when you ride it ...
- as I say, take the weights with a few pinches of salt. I remember reading a review of a bike (can't remember where) and was astounded by the weight that they gave. Having some spare time and doing some maths, I worked out that, if it was true, the frame and fork combined weighed 1kg! Not bad for a $4k bike! I took this to a friend who works in a shop and he backed up my maths and said that the manufacturer was notorious for putting out b-s weights ... This reminds me of my days of riding motorbikes where you could supposedly buy a $15k road legal sports bike that weighs about 2kg more than a $200k tricked out race bike ...
- lastly, remember, it's not the bike so much as the rider. I took great delight last 'cross season - which was my first and came after me spenidng a very inactive southern hemisphere winter and having just moved to Canada - kicking **** in the races I was in and consistently finishing top 10 on my $1000 stock standard Cannondale X6 (with a 1500g frame and 700g fork - and almost 2000g wheelset!). It was such a blast beating people on multi-thousand dollar carbon bikes with carbon tubular wheelsets that cost more than my bike did. I'm not saying that I'm any sort of legend or anything (not even a "legend in my own lunchtime"!!) - it's just making the point that, as it has always been, riders win races, not bikes ...
OK, this is an overly long diatribe ... time to step down from the soap box and let all of those gear heads, bike shop owners and manufacturers' marketing departments who disagree with me have a shot at what I've written ... The floor is yours .... ;-)