>>1815537It's always a good question, what affects quality in a real way on a bicycle?
Take pic rel. Is that really true?
Geometry is something you can easily copy, is tubing used the only other relevant detail?
I wish i had the info but they deleted their website, I remember reading on Bob Jackson that one of the things they thought differentiated their frames was they weren't build in a jig. So basically, the cheap way of building a bicycle frame is you align all the tubes in a jig, then join them all together. But that act of joining them, tiging, or lubs, moves the frame, and so when it's done you have to bend it back into alignment which severely weakens it. That means the superior way to build a frame is to re-align each tube after each joint. That takes WAY longer but gives you a stronger frame. Now, does that even matter, or does it just mean the 'badly' built frame is slightly more likely to break, which is highly unlikely anyway? Is it a matter of pride or something that affects anything? I really don't know.
My guess is that you could theoretically buy cheap chinese frames which are just cheap because there's no profit and no middle man and they're well made but you might equally likely buy frames which have no real standards or oversight and are out of alignment or poorly designed and that normally what you'd pay for with a 'real' company is a refined design and people who care about their product riding well and will actually develop that, on the flipside, couldn't that ip all just be copied at no cost to you from some chinese company? Yes, but will it have been?
This is just me rambling and really i should just say you're combining too many memes in how you view bicycles.
