Originally Posted by
Kimmo
The skill in building a carbon monocoque is in both the design of the frame itself, and the design of the tooling and processes to make it, which far transcends the abilities of an individual artisan; it's a proper full-blown bit of industrial engineering.
Add in aero optimisation, for what little it's really worth, and you're definitely talking something only a large company can achieve. (Although I guess now that design cat is out of the bag, since aero frames are all a pretty similar shape.)
No, see, "artisans" only count if they're American or European, and not those weird guys over there who are "soulless"
e) i also find the "cookie cutter" comment really funny. I've owned three bikes, two of which were lugged steel. I love traditional geometry lugged steel racing bikes. They also all look the same, until you get into examining cutouts/lug shapes etc. Like there's no way I could tell an unpainted Colnago from an unpainted Puch from the 80s without looking up cutouts/lug shapes/etc, while I could absolutely tell the difference between the current pro tour Bianchi Oltre/Tarmac/Argon 18 without any paint on them. Cookie cutter indeed.
And full disclosure, I'm also biased against carbon, it's just that I think aero tubes are sins against bike aesthetics and everything should look like a Merckx Corsa Extra