Not so random but it does go to the mindset of Chinese manufacturing and their take on QC and customer satisfaction.
Interesting older blog entry about Chines manufacturing mindset.
https://novemberbicycles.com/blogs/blog/gypsies-tramps-and-thievesThe consumer appeal of the generic carbon is of course the irresistible pricing. You can get an unbranded road frameset for under $400 on eBay - one that certainly looks the part too. At that price, it's easy to see why every night the men come around, and lay their money down. Now let's wilfully suspend disbelief for a minute and assume that this isn't a photo of a sample from a manufacturer who supplies established brands, and is in fact a bike developed and built in earnest by a small manufacturer in China specializing in carbon fiber. At $360, it could make money on the frame. Not as much as our supplier makes selling dozens of them at a time to us, but there is some margin in that $360 to be sure. How much margin? According to "Poorly Made in China," not enough. Manufacturers in China are always looking for ways to cut costs. One story is about a manufacturer supplying shampoo to an American personal care company. They subcontracted another manufacturer to make the bottles, and over time changed the bottle spec - provided by the American brand - to use less and less plastic in the bottle in order to save on raw materials costs. The American brand was never notified of the change until the bottles became so thin that they collapsed in peoples' grasp (think bottled water, not shampoo). In China, this is seen as resourceful and clever in the way it increases manufacturer profitability. When the brand did notice and demanded that the product be built to spec, the manufacturer made the importer pay the additional costs for the thicker bottles, as if it were not the original spec but a change order.
When I read that section I immediately thought what would happen if a bike manufacturer - spurred by the same economic incentive - did the same thing. Reducing the number of carbon wraps in a frame or fork or rims to save on costs would not only make the product less expensive to manufacture - it would reduce the weight, making it appear more desirable at the same time. Only that's no more strategic a route to weight reduction in a frame than drilling holes in it. I don't know if this happens. Neither do you. But the economic climate in which a practice like this flourishes exists in the very regions where generic carbon fiber bike parts are made.
