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The new Meta also does look sweet, i'd maybe fix a few bits on it f i was the one designing it, but all in all, it looks cool, is impressively speced and the prices are not that bad (though i think i'd go with the Reign, it's 500 € cheaper in the spec i want here in Slovenia).
Though i am genuinely interested how much a carbon bike or frame produce in Europe would have to sell for to at least break even. Though i feel it's just a matter of time with rising shipping costs, currency fluctuations, the East's rising average salaries and now the state of manufacturers, as you said based off Max's words.
You do also have the problem of knowledge base being very much there, besides the costs. Bikes are i would say (though i am no expert, but i am a mechanical engineer with an interest in composites) quite specific, if made monocoque, since you need bladders and at least a 2-part tool, in for example Specialized's previous Demo case at least three even. And you have many awkward joints. A racing car tub is much simpler and those are also usually made in two pieces, if we are talking about for example Le Mans coupes. And even then a vast part of the internal voids is filled up with aluminium honeycomb.
Are there any experts here that can chime in on this topic? I'd love to hear/read/get to know more about it.
I know about R and D and stuff like that, but I am curious what the $$ would be.
If you want to know why more people do not build in the developed world look at the price of Reynolds and ENVE wheels. Almost twice the price than their Asian counterparts.
dave
No idea what the costs would, literally no idea, i am after all still finishing up college (masters degree), so i am completely clueless in this regard. But i am genuenly interested what the pure production costs per piece are in the far east and what they would be for the same product in Europe, in European Union (that's a wide area, since you have Sweden, Germany and the like on one end and Romaina and BUlgaria on the other end of the spectrum). So no marketing, no R&D costs, no profit margins, since those would be the same between the two.
The tooling (and I believe the carbon) for Reynolds wheels is made Stateside, then shipped to their own factory in Guangzho, China
"Looks like" a Bulls WildCore from that angle.
"...Snow will make his Audi debut in the No. 21 Santa Cruz Bicycles / UIS Audi R8 LMS Ultra..."
http://www.gmgracing.com/madison-snow-to-join-gmg-for-pirelli-world-cha…
https://youtu.be/g-rsBMT9_dU
Looks like a new carbon frame from gt
http://ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb11289313/p5pb11289313.jpg
On the other hand, looking at the picture of the aluminium link, it might just be a machined out aluminium link for lightness (with the majority of the green parts of the link removed).
The Athertons for example had the rocker bridge removed on the Supreme V3. And there have been other similar mods done to the bikes before.
EDIT: yeah, the stock CS length is 430, you can hardly go shorter on a DH bike
http://ride.io/videos/athertons-malaga/
edit: a jeep for mtb - don´t think so ;-)
It does look really smooth (carbon-like), but i think i might be seeing a weld by the upper rocker thingie mount between the 'seat tube' or better yet the vertical plates and the top tube at 0:32. There's a suspicious ridge/bulge/something.
The shock mounts are also really thin, there's the seat tube brace, both looking at the before mentioned finnicky parts. I'd say it's a smoothed out aluminium frame, where the welds have been grinded down.
It also seems like the headtube is welded onto the top and downtubes, while the Facebook video from Rachel's page is much more certain to be carbon.
EDIT: 1:22, clearly welded, down by the BB, the shock mounts, the swingarm, etc. Aluminium.
https://instagram.com/p/0LHTxMFSpm/
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