This was sent to me from Trek - an excerpt from their newsletter "exit 180".




Don't Believe The Hype!

As part of Trek's on-going research and development process of building better OCLV carbon fiber bikes, we do plenty of lab tests (frontal impact & fatigue) to see what works and what doesn't. Fancy finishes notwithstanding, the best measure of how well a frame performs is how well it is made. We slice open plenty of our competitors' frames to check their quality.

Recently, I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of this carbon fork. Wrapped along the inside wall of each leg was a portion of some Chinese newspaper that was leftover from the manufacturing process. This is what you get from an “American” bike company that sources their bikes off-shore with little control over the process.


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Take a Look Inside

Then again, there's also this fine example of foam filler in place of real carbon that was found on the inside of another brand that touts itself as a champion of new technology and hands-on fabrication. There's enough clay in there to sculpt a small ash tray.