Cheap Carbon Fibre?

http://techau.com.au/mass-production-of-carbon-fibre-solved-by-csiro-and-deakin-costs-set-to-crash/

Are we looking at a price crash in carbon fibre?

http://techau.com.au/mass-production-of-carbon-fibre-solved-by-csiro-and-deakin-costs-set-to-crash/

Are we looking at a price crash in carbon fibre?

The prices for raw carbon have been going down for years. But bike companies have been telling us the opposite. However, the cost for manufacture in Asia is obviously going up overall.

Edit: but some companies like Trek and Specialized are using pretty high grade stuff on their high end road frames….and the drop in super mega high frickin modulus is still very high relatively speaking.

Sounds promising. I wonder if the new process is any cleaner. I like my cake with icing.

Price of carbon could be decreasing but constantly retooling molds is a huge capital expense. Are bikes even getting a 3 yr life span out of a mold now?

For DH and Enduro racing carbon frames are a terrible application. You kill current model sales as soon as a future model test mule is spotted by the public.

It'll be like when companies move production overseas but their pricing stays the same. It's a move to improve margins not lower retail prices.

It's a move to improve margins not lower retail prices.

Incorrect. It's a move to maintain competitive pricing. As soon as one manufacturer re-engineers the pricing structure others must follow or close their doors because they aren't selling bikes for two reasons:

1)They are priced appropriately when produced domestically but everyone complains about the high prices because company XYZ is cheaper for the same spec or

2)They are priced appropriately when compared to the competition but now the margins are so low or non-existent that the company is longer able to keep its doors open.

The norm now is to have goods produced overseas; don't kid yourself. Everyone is on a level playing field so to speak.

Anyone know how much of a component of frame cost (landed unit cost to bike manufacturer maybe?) the raw carbon materials are versus the labour involved in lay-up? Would be interesting to know and would remove the capex component of retooling molds plus R[HTML_REMOVED]D.