Originally Posted by
maartendc
It is not that hard to believe that they just reverse engineered Enve (or any other competitor's) rims by looking at the carbon layup and design with X-ray, sawing through them, etc. etc. Carbon fiber layup of a wheel does not strike me as that difficult of a thing to reverse engineer. At the end of the day, it is just strands of carbon fiber in a polymer resin. The tech has been around since the 1970s.
Much easier to reverse engineer than many of the nano-sized computer chips etc. that are also being reverse engineered in China. Or fighter jets, etc.
And if reverse-engineering is indeed what they do, then yes, the saved costs in RnD and marketing could very well account for the cost difference. Companies spend HUGE amounts on marketing, Rnd, and of course just straight up profit margin in some cases (like Apple with their iPhones, 30% profit margin from hearsay).
Is the price of the LB wheels "too good to be true"? I don't really think so. Building up a wheelset with a quality hub on their website still runs you about $700-$800. While a similar wheelset from the likes of Enve costs maybe $2500. But wheelsets from other reputable brands can be found for around $1500?
Yea, for reference, ProWheelbuilder has their own house-branded CF rims that they handbuild here in the USA. $999 for Bitex hubs and sapim spokes. $1300 for White Industries hubs. 3 year warranty. And PWB are good folks that stand behind their work. Lots of people are doing carbon fiber. LB is in the middle between the uber-cheap and the expensive.
Enve is too expensive to sell product..AMER is selling them off. Zipp was bought out by SRAM renowned for their price-fixing shenanigans. Both, for their price, have had many problems with product that made the news. Probably part of why "ENVE" is no longer called "Edge Composites"....Zipp, well, you'd think a wheel that costs that much would have reliable and decent hubs.