So I have I actually contacted quality control and design at Leader and learned that nearly all their frame problems were a bad batches of frames from specific production runs. If you know anything about manufacturing and mass-production (and I do, I work at Leatherman), you know things like this are unavoidable. You can't inspect every product that comes off a production line, you check a few in a batch. Bad ones are GOING to get through. And if something goes wrong with either the materials or a step in the process,you get a run of product with similar failures in one area. This is what happened at Leader. I work in manufacturing, I know how the process works.

Long story short, I maintained my purchase of the 725 frame. For the price ($310 for the frame, i803 carbon fork, and FSA headset, all 30% off over the new year weekend) I couldn't pass it up. I've been in direct contact with one of their customer service people, and have followed all of his recommendations so far with assembly, torque specs, etc. I have assurances that there should be no problems with my frame, and the lifetime warranty is in place. I'm optimistic that it will be fine, and if there's an issue, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I'm a casual/frequent street and city rider, not a professional racer or bike messenger.