Originally Posted by
zymphad
You sure about that? You may want to look up what Specialized super weld is. It makes joints stronger than traditional welding, lighter etc. There really isn't any downside. And from what I read recently, Specialized will be switching all their Allez bikes to superweld next year.
I also been reading plenty of articles where the superweld s-works allez are surprising racers all over. Can be built to be under 15 lb and it's as stiff and responsive as the Tarmac SL4. That sounds to me, damn good welding and joints.
I think he was commenting on the appearance of the welds and I would have to agree, they're ugly.
Of course a full penetration butt weld is going to be stronger than a filet but you don't see a lot of frames failing at the welds. The real reason they're doing it is likely that it's a fully automated process and they don't have to pay a human to do it.