Originally Posted by
Inertianinja
and about the power of annecdote....
I have no personal experience with BMC Bikes, other than looking at them and thinking how hot they are.
Yet, I've seen two instances with the frame snapping...
- one Team Machine that broke at the "m", so it looked like "Tear Machine"
- one Track Machine (?) on which the frame snapped @ the headtube when crashed.
...that freaked me out.
These anecdotes are very powerful. That's why they provide a strong incentive for manufacturers to keep them from occurring (as a result of defects).
It's also possible that there are bad runs or bad designs.
Crashes, anyway, are exceptional situations. While carbon might not perform in the way one would like in a crash, presumably, there are other advantages that significantly outweigh these "deficiencies". "Light" bikes are clearly some sort of compromise.
It's not at all expected that one particular manufacturer's carbon frame would perform differently in a crash.