TheRookie wrote:Trek offer one of the best frame warranties available, they could bankrupt themselves if they produced shoddy frames, clearly a hand made frame can be good or really bad, I didn't say the trek frame would be Better though if you read what I put.....
The Treks and others use prepreg and an expensive mould, you could never have that with a one-off frame as the moulds are circa £5k each, plus going mass produced you have time and budget to do development builds and testing......
When you say 'one of the best warranties available' what do you mean? Do they honour every claim or...?
The reason why mass produced frames use an expensive mould is repeatability. The moulds could be made far cheaper for a one off. For example, our special projects engineer has built one time trial bike and two mountain bikes exactly how he wanted them and for far cheaper than he could buy a good carbon hardtail.
With mass produce frames you also have to bear in mind that efficiency is key, low cost manufacturing is paramount. With hand made frames, time can be taken and the budget is only limited by the customer.
TheRookie wrote:But there is no reason for a carbon frame to be stiff, it can be made just as supple as any steel if that is what the maker wants, also as it has the highest internal hysteresis it's the best damped.....
very true, but the problem is how many manufacturers can you name that produce their own carbon tubes for frame building? There are more options available for alloys than there are for custom carbon.