A few more comments. <br /><br />While I am not a cyclist yet (I have been threatening to buy my first bike soon) I am a mechanical engineer and have some more "techie" stuff on carbon fiber. I am quoting from memory so please shoot me down if you read something differently, it is most likely more accurate than my memory.<br /><br />As Vo2 mentioned, carbon fiber is incredibly strong in TENSION, but not as strong when in compression and much weaker than any other material used when placed in shear such as is common with lateral loads. The problem with bikes is that most loads are compressive not tensile, that is, the force is usually transmitted in a way that tries to squash (compressive) rather than stretch (tensile). If carbon fiber is designed properly it can effectively handle compressive loads well. While some strength is sacrificed by designing for compressive loads as opposed to tensile loads this sacrifice can easily be made up by "reinforcing" the design element. Reinforcing means one of two things bigger or more, in either case that means weight. Because of the high strength to weight ratio of carbon fiber, it is easy to add more material to handle compressive loads and still remain lighter. So, the only problem remains those shear loading effects. That problem is overcome by discussing the second part of your question, how is it made.<br /><br />To make carbon fiber, you start with a normal fiber, something similar to, say, seat belt material. Not actual seat belt material, but if you look closely enough at it you get a feel for what the grain structure of carbon fiber looks like. Through a rather complex mechanism, carbon fibers are impregnated into the lattice structure of the parent fiber in such a way that grain boundaries line up along their long axes, this is what gives it it's incredible uni-directional strength. What you wind up with is thin sheets of material that are flexible and incredibly strong in tension along one axis of stress/strain. To help overcome the weakness in the lateral loading or shear plane of force, sheets of material can be layered on top of each other and glued together at 90 degree angles to each other. This overlapping of alternate grain orientations allows for strength to be maintained in all directions but is also key to how carbon fiber can be used by a good designer. Case in point. Forks. Bear in mind, I know nothing practical about cycling yet, other than what I have read (I have read a lot) but a basic engineering analysis of forks shows that 90% of the load they bear are compressive loads. So if I layer carbon fiber sheets together and my main concern is to hold up to compression, I will layer 75% of the material longitudinally along the main axis of force transmitall and layer the other 25% perpendicular to that axis to reinforce. I am left with a member that will withstand more compressive loads than shear but that is okay because I do not expect major shear loads. This is why designers love carbon, all the equations they use to design with can now be applied with precision to design elements to the exact loads they will see, no wasted material. But there are a lot of challenges. <br /><br />As for the part about sagging of losing its strength, again, I am only guessing, but I know that carbon fiber parts are made by overlapping layers of material that are glued or bonded together in some other manner. I can envision a scenario in which an element that is subjected to repetitive loading/unloading along the same axis might cause layers of material to delaminate from on another. This might manifest itself as a "flex" or a "spring" in the material that was not originally there but this is all just speculation.<br /><br />I have rambled enough for now, hope I have answered more than I have confused.<br /><br />