Originally Posted by
PeteHski
Suggesting that all carbon frames are more or less equal just because they are all made in Taiwan or China is a weak argument. The first company I worked for made carbon F3 and F3000 chassis. The bare chassis (carbon tubs) looked identical, but the F3000 version was literally double the torsional strength and lighter. The difference was all in the layup and carbon quality. They were also much more expensive to produce.
Sounds like cool work! How much of the additional cost of the F3000 was materials vs. production? Considering how little material is in bicycle frame, are the expensive bikes layed up by hand vs robots for the lower end stuff? Actually, would a robot do a better, more consistent job in this case?