From Dan’s article re: Interbike:
Take, for example, six of the hotter carbon tri bikes at the show: Giant’s carbon time trial bike, Kuota’s Kaliber, Quintana Roo’s Lucero (at right), Kestrel’s Airfoil, Guru’s Crono (below), and the show’s big surprise, Cervelo’s Carbon P3. Half of these are built in the same Chinese factory.
Which ones are built in China? Are they all built in China?
And “Many or most of the newest sport a style of construction reminiscent of Calfee (but none look quite as good to my eye as those Craig Calfee makes— Cervelo’s R2.5 comes close, as do the bikes made by Parlee, a company in Boston that slowly and laboriously builds its products. These frames use round carbon tubes, made by companies like Wound Up or MacLean (Reynolds Composites’ parent compay) and join them with carbon lugs. Also made in this style is Guru’s Carbonio, likewise a nice looking example. All four of these companies’ complete bikes sell for $3500 and up. Yet you can buy frames from the Orient that look similar—if you don’t get too close—and sell for prices allowing for complete bike costs ranging from $1800 to $2500. Clearly these frames aren’t in the same class. But how is the customer to differentiate between them?”
How is a customer supposed to know if he’s buying a good carbon frame or not? Heck, I was a local (San Diego) well know bike store and he said his store alone gets between 8-12 returned Carbon Trek frames with cracks in them. He said American’s design the best bike, just don’t know how to make them (referring to Carbon).