by prendrefeu on Wed Nov 24, 2010 8:05 pm
Okay, serious question:
How do you, as a rider, as a consumer, actually know what carbon is being used in the frame aside from a label?
Pinarello, Wilier (and perhaps others) put on a label that has "60 Ton Toray" carbon or similar that indicates what, as claimed, is being used in the manufacturing.
How do you really know though? We have a few people visit a factory, maybe they take a picture of a box that read "Toray" on the side. Great. Who is to say that they only brought out those boxes for that visit? Who is to say that the company/brand (not the manufacturer) didn't switch to another brand of CF to save some money...?
A label is just a label, they can be added, removed, and as a brand has higher cachet it is rarely questioned.
We can easily put on a label that says "Made in Italy" when clearly we know it's made in Taiwan... oh wait, that's already being done.
Afterall, I doubt anyone here can ride a bike "blind" and really determine what type or brand of carbon was used in the build given the same geometries, design, and build.
Can we get a factory to use a known, brand-name mold but older model from a famous brand such as Pinarello, Wilier, etc, and do two sets: one using "high end" carbon and the other using the "other stuff" ? Test ride them both... is there really a difference? Honest queston, I don't know the answer personally and I'm interested in finding out.
In a related note, there is a certain point where frame and components are quite stiff - and far 'stiffer' than any of us really need, and it would be difficult to have a rider determine which is actually stiffer, so we rely on numbers and data from testing. Does it really matter? Obviously there is a big difference between components and frames that are clearly noodles vs. pillars, but as things near the upper end of the stiffness scale we're not able to perceive a noticeable difference at all. If anything, some 'perceptions' that may come up when judging between components on the upper end of the spectrum could be subject to other factors such as tire pressure, road, environment, fatigue of rider, etc:. ... so we rely on instruments to give us numbers, but so much of that becomes imperceptible.
Discuss.
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