Great frames.
Bonded carbon bikes got a bad rap because of some early european frames, particularly the Vitus / Peugeot frames. Companies that had been doing bonded aluminum frames simply substituted carbon tubes for aluminum, without changing glues, or accounting for the fact that you now had dissimilar materials being joined. The frames failed at the joints with grim regularity. Unfortunately, the technique got the bad rap, not just those particular frames.
Trek, on the other hand, did it right. I worked at a shop that used to be a Trek dealer. We still honored their free tune-up policy, and I saw a lot of bonded Treks, both Al and CF. I've never seen or heard of a joint failure in a bonded Trek frame. Our senior wrench had worked there since 1987, he'd never heard of it either. Also, Trek's current carbon frames are glued. Carbon tubes to carbon lugs. They don't fail either.
If you've ever flown in an airplane, you've trusted your life to mixed-material bonded joints. It can be done right. Trek does it right.
The old 2300 frames are not light by modern standards, at around 3.5 pounds for the bare frame. But they ride nice, handle well, are super strong, and deserve to be ridden. About the only thing wrong with them is the early-90s paint jobs. And no, they're not noodly. Frame stiffness doesn't matter anyway, but even if it did, the 2300 is stiff enough
--Shannon.
--Shannon