Planet-X RT -58 Carbon - which one?

An ex pro cyclist friend of mine has just recently returned from Taiwan. He has brought back two genuine CAAD 10 frames from the factory where they are made. They cost him £225 each. They retail in the UK for £799. Most frames carbon or otherwise come from the same Chinese/Taiwanese factories they just have different badges on. True some bike companies have their own R&D and QC and according to PX this is the case with the RT 38 Carbon frame.

Batchy wrote:

An ex pro cyclist friend of mine has just recently returned from Taiwan. He has brought back two genuine CAAD 10 frames from the factory where they are made. They cost him £225 each. They retail in the UK for £799. Most frames carbon or otherwise come from the same Chinese/Taiwanese factories they just have different badges on. True some bike companies have their own R&D and QC and according to PX this is the case with the RT 38 Carbon frame.

Yeah but they're 'cheap for a reason'

In what context is cheap. Does this mean inferior or just less expensive to manufacture?
Does expensive mean superior or just costs a lot more to buy because of marketing hype?

Some products are loving had crafted and designed to a very high standard in small numbers using the best materials available .These products will naturally be far more expensive to buy. They may well look better and perform marginally better. You will probably have make a special order at your LBS to get one of these products.
Therefore if it is in stock and more or less readily available it will have been made using a more industrial production line to reduce costs and be more accessible to the general public. To all intents and purposes and given decent specifications these products will arguably perform much the same as the hand crafted very expensive products. The most important factor to take into account with mass produced items is quality control not necessarily price. Some people make the assumption that for example a Chinese or Taiwanese worker is somewhat interior to a European one. There was a time, when I was a lad, when some folk poked fun at the first Toyota cars to arrive on these shores. Well they don't poke fun anymore do they. Especially in Sunderland !
I many cases a brand name and glossy marketing can blind gullible people into assuming they are buying a superior product. I recently checked out a Trek Madone it was priced at £2500. My PX RT58 with same level of spec cost me £1800. The Trek's wheels could be bought at Wiggle for £115. Mine has £500 Mavics ! No contest !

The cost is generally in the development, infrastructure and marketing - not manufacturing. All the stuff the PX naysayers are mentioning come from Taiwanese factory's too... So errr.

Look a schwalbe constructing an entire factory just for their new one tire. The rubber and construction of the tire is cheap enough to achieve. Figuring out how to design a fantastic race tire - less so.

The design of the Madone to be aero yet stiff and light enough is the cost there. You are paying for that.

alexwlondon wrote:

dazwan, this is indeed the precise point I'd like to understand. The problem is that I do not know enough. Why should a high end alu frame better than a low end carbon?

There are probably some bloody awful 'quality' aluminium frames and very good 'low' end carbon one - and vice versa - and the 'high end' frame may not be suitable for what you want (ride, position etc) - it's just not that simple. Don't get caught up on materials.

As mentioned, if you can get into the shops and have sit on the bikes, see what takes your fancy, arrange a test ride if possible (remember, they're trying to sell something to you) and go from there.

If you're buying online, like PlanetX, Canyon etc, then you'll probably have to go on reviews, forum posts etc and choose the general type of bike is suitable for you - the RT-58 sounds like a good one for all round riding and the SRAM model, in particular, seems excellent value.