I'm looking at all those tour-caliber bikes with 1100g carbon frames. (giant, de rosa, felt, trek, scott, etc..) Thing is, I don't see much difference between them.... they just rave about how they have this unique badass carbon and no one else does. If there is an actual difference, please enlighten me.... The only two unique frames i've seen

scott cr1 - because it is 880grams!

cannondale synapse - huge bottom bracket casing, which is what i am interested in. There's a bit on it here. Does anybody know how much this thing weighs on the synapse?

You mean the enlarged bottom bracket shell? (it's an idea geared towards increasing bearing size over the current standard)

You can get a similar benefit by using an external bearing crankset with a regular sized BB shell.

I'm not sure which one is better.

Calfee or Parlee can make you a full custom, high-end carbon bike.

the best thing to do is to ride them and pay attention to ride differences and geo. differences. Quite frankly, it's not really important how different the actual fibers are, but rather how they are woven. The way the fibers are woven gives the bikes different ride characteristics, so two bikes made of the same exact carbon may ride completely differently. If you want a huge bb shell (i am assuming for stiffness), and don't mind not riding full carbon (and have the $$$$$ to do so), check out the Pinarello Dogma FP. It has some rediculously large BB shell, byt that's over most mortals' budgets. there is also a new carbon Pinarello called the 4:13 that has lots of oversized tubes, but i can't tell if it has the same oversized BB and shell. Check 'em out at www.competitivecyclist.com.