Originally Posted by
strangdang
What you refer to as research and development I would call marketing and hype. Most of the actual advancements in tech comes from independent engineers and the Taiwanese factories themselves. The reason all the good carbon bikes are made there is the Taiwanese investment in technology and fabrication.
While there may be some cookie cutter "brands" using generic independent frames, the big boys are still doing their own engineering.
If I'm wrong, it should be fairly easy for someone to show me a Trek and a C'dale/Specialized/Scott/Jamis/etc side by side with the exact same geometry.