- Aug 30, 2010
- 3,838
- 529
- 15,080
BroDeal said:LOL. Ya gotta love this. On one hand the we need to be assured that all the high tech design was done by white men instead of asians. On the other hand we need to be assured that the high tech manufacturing was done by asians who have expertise that western countries do not have (despite developing all the technology). And never a word is said about cost.
Frames are made in Asia because they costs less than $300 a frame/fork. Western bike companies need to maintain their marketing BS about carbon so they can continue to sell suckers those frames for $3000 or more. They don't want people wondering why something as simple as a bicycle frame that is sold for thousands of dollars cannot be manufactured at home. The total disconnect between the manufacturing cost and the retail price is why there are zillions of upstart bike companies. The market is flooded with carbon frames. Buy some catalog frames in volume, slap on your own paint job and decals, jack the price to ten times what you paid for a frame, and you too can be a bike manufacturer.
It is telling that high end Treks made in the U.S. cost roughly the same as Cervelos when Cervelo is too cheap to even manufacture in Taiwan; they manufacture in China.
What is really amazing is that Cervelo still charges same for some frames they haven't changed the mold on in 5 years.