Originally Posted by
Marcus_Ti
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.
The cost of the mold is only part of it. The production cost comes also from the very labor intensive process of laying up the carbon. Then you have to make sure it is laid up properly, etc... it ain't cheap. Cetainly not cheaper than welding a frame. Again, there is a reason low end bikes have steel and aluminum frames. If you want to lie to yourself and claim that it is all placebo effect and bike industry fooling people, go to town.