Originally Posted by
FrozenK
Carbon fiber production is very labor intensive. And it is also very demanding in the QC department. Developing molds is very expensive. While, yes producing CF in China is cheaper than in the US due to the low labor cost carbon fiber is still expensive to produce.
Metal bikes (aluminum and steel) are dirt cheap to produce. Which is why you see metal and not carbon at Walmart. The reason carbon is taking over is because it is a wonderful material to make bikes with. Easily shaped into complex shapes with anisotropic properties. Great weight/stiffness ratio, vibration dampening... and with China's low labor it can be built to prices competitive with metal. It isn't because carbon is cheaper to make, it is because it works better.
Yea but you miss the mass manufacturing point.
You make a mold...and you go to town pumping out frames, the instant you have the tooling down. Further you save money by outsourcing the tooling and cooking to some sweatshop in China. How long do you think it takes to break even on expenses when people are loony enough to blow $10,000 on a plastic off-the-shelf mass-produced frame from China?
And yes, they are cheaper to make. And "it works better" speaks volumes about placebo effect.