I’m like a broken record with this story but one example that runs contradictory to this clear trend is Pivot (another is Trek).
A few years back I had a really nice chat with Chris Cocalis from Pivot, who is probably too forthright for his best interests and so I think he’s awesome, about this issue when we’re talking about how his aluminum bikes all share as many frame members as possible to keep costs down. He wasn’t willing to make shitty aluminum frames but at volume the cost difference between a nice aluminum frame and a carbon frame is much less than most people think.
At the time, riders were expecting to pay ~ $1000 less for an aluminum frame/bike and the reality was even with smart production that the costs were closer than that.
Not to name names, but this is why companies make shit-tank aluminum frames or only make carbon frames now, even if they made nice aluminum frames in the past.
June 2, 2023, 7 a.m. - Andrew Major
I’m like a broken record with this story but one example that runs contradictory to this clear trend is Pivot (another is Trek). A few years back I had a really nice chat with Chris Cocalis from Pivot, who is probably too forthright for his best interests and so I think he’s awesome, about this issue when we’re talking about how his aluminum bikes all share as many frame members as possible to keep costs down. He wasn’t willing to make shitty aluminum frames but at volume the cost difference between a nice aluminum frame and a carbon frame is much less than most people think. At the time, riders were expecting to pay ~ $1000 less for an aluminum frame/bike and the reality was even with smart production that the costs were closer than that. Not to name names, but this is why companies make shit-tank aluminum frames or only make carbon frames now, even if they made nice aluminum frames in the past.