Originally Posted by KonAaron Snake

A lot of this post strikes me as complete non-sense to be blunt. Please provide some evidence that "75% of a plane's cost is liability insurance". This sounds like histrionic, agenda based hyperbole. I know squat about the industry, but I'm calling BS based on common sense.

Specialized survived next gen buys of aluminum and steel...and have survived existing used CF bikes on the market since the early 90s.

Have you ridden a CF specialized? Mine rides great, though the Shimano bits are another matter. I hate to break this to you...but you can make a quality bike in China, Taiwan, Japan, the US, Italy...etc. It might have less boutique appeal, but there's nothing wrong with commercial products in China unless they were made in a flawed manner/process. Sure...my tendency is to prefer boutique US production, but running down a commercial Chinese production frame isn't needed and isn't likely to be terribly accurate, those bikes have proven to be more than adequate for a lot of people.

As to a few prior assertions, the endurance limit you describe may be more theoretical than practical...steel bikes regularly see stress that places incremental weakness in excess of the endurance yield and aluminum/CF bikes are often over engineered to the point where the advantage is largely theoretical. Does endurance limit exist? Yes...I've talked to enough industry folks over the years to understand that the real world application is largely immaterial to the majority of users.

Bikes are tools...they all have a place, and even the wrong size screw driver can frequently turn a screw adequately enough.