Snap!

This WAS kevin's frame a few years back.

He was riding down hill at a good clip, hit a large dip in the trail and "G'd out" massively...after skidding on his face and back for 40 feet or so, he regained composure to find his racing hard tail fragmented. Gunnar said he must have driven into his garage with bike on roof.

This leads me to yesterday's ride with Tom. (not quite as catastrophic) Riding off greenwood ave on some technical trails. Both of us back on the squishy bikes..had mine set to 6 inches front and rear. The sun was out, near 60 degrees..short sleeves. Mud, mud and more mud. Perfect day for a looong ride...then snap!
Tom and I had just made a good climb on red dot and while descending on a tricky corner Tom lays it down. Not a bad crash but happened quick. I hear it and wait. As I peered through the trees I could see Tom holding his hand and thought he hurt his fingers but as he walks closer he is holding something in his hand. It's Tom's broken carbon fiber Hayes brake front brake lever.
We stood there trying to formulate a trail-fix for this mishap but realized there's nothing to do but get a new lever... And this happened feet from where Jeff lost a front brake pad a couple months back. This trail is now known as "Broke brake trail" in my mind. Tom was cool, he could have said screw the ride since we were only a half hour out...looking at another 90 minutes of muddy, steep-technical he decided to ride on.
After the ride I got to thinking about carbon fiber vs: aluminum for components...yeah, carbon fiber is lighter, has *bling* value, may absorb shock better than aluminum but if that lever was aluminum it would have surely bent and not ka-snapped like a candy cane.
I'm going to be building a steel hard tail over the next month or so...was going to go with a carbon post and bars...now, I've seen Jeff hammer on his monkey lite sl's - will I have such good luck with carbon fiber or will a slight lapse in concentration in some epic race cause me to DNF?