Char m'luv, you don't count your rider weight in any bhp/kg calculations as the rider or driver is the variable. If it was race condition the bike or car would have to meet a minimum weight before the pilot themselves are weighed in. (current formula 1 for instance is 600kg with car and driver, so you try and get the car as light as possible so you can ballast to your advantage). like many things on a road bike they don't actually matter and its just more marketing to say its like the race bike blah blah blah. In racing one would use weight saving to bring the weight down as far as possible, even below the weight limit because then you can pay with weight distribution in the form of ballast weights etc. This helps in that you can then balance the chassis (CoG, %F and R) for the style of riding or driving on the pilot or the failings of the bike (stuff like rearward heavy engines for instance). Also the carbon you buy as after market is never that light any way, its cosmetic more than anything else, but customers want the charcoal fibre on their road vehicles to remain blingy and shiny. It also has to fit without much bother an trimming. Some cosmetic carbon, cars are the worst culprits, are the original plastic part wrapped in plastic so actually heavier than the part it replaces, but at least you can fit it to OE stuff. UnLike most actual race stuff, its built to last, its not like race stuff thats built to do a job and at the end of that season it all changes anyway, so if it falls apart who cares. It always reminds me of a sunny sunday dahn Boxhill in me yoof; there i was on my SS, and I was standing next to a guy who had just bought the then newly released R1, being one of the early adopters he was holding court, and had obviously thrown most of the harris catalogue at it, ohlins front and rear, adjustable yokes, full Skorpion system, really rubbish carbon fairing, super bling rear sets, qb carbon tank. He was banging on about how you could feel the difference with this and that, and how x and y improved the flickability etc. His closing comment went along the lines of "I'm gonna get some man-eeeesium wee-ooolls, to save unsprung weight." Sounded very impressive if he didn't weigh probably the best part of 18-20 stone. sooo... on your road bike carbon really makes very little difference, most of it is there to make your bike look nicer. carbon or mag wheels will transform your bike's handling, as will swanky suspension. However if your riding in town and traffic even the benefit of those might not be as noticeable as they could be.
