While it's certainly concerning, it's nothing new that carbon can crack or be poorly manufactured. Two friends of mine destroyed their S-Works Aethos bikes—one by hitting a pothole hard, which cracked the top tube, and the other during a ride when the seat tube broke in the middle. These were genuine Aethos frames.
Something similar happened with a Giant TCR owned by another friend—the chainstay cracked out of nowhere, and the frame had only a few thousand kilometers on it.
Let’s not forget the fork issue with the Tarmac SL7.
We’ve seen pros on TV break their bikes and handlebars. It's true that buying a bike from a Chinese seller might make people more apprehensive, but in the end, it's not uncommon for carbon to fail due to poor manufacturing or quality control.... and it happens everywhere..
Common denominator is often the sworks version. Within pros, it's an open secret that sworks frames break a lot, and they usually dont recommend buying a frame from a team.
Pinarello was like that 5 or so years ago, with an ultra light version of the dogma that some bike shops refused to sell to customers because the frame simply wouldn't last. Awkward client conversations.
I would not spend sworks money on an sworks because there are too many stories of frames cracking while in the trunk of the car. I need my bike to be dependable.
These TDF level frames are the spear of the tech, and are not meant for mere mortals. You can't buy a formula 1 car, but you can buy an sworks.
My point as follows: while it's logical to expect failures on ultra light frames that compete on weight with the sworks, if we start normalizing frames cracking on this forum (again, hasn't been in a thing on here for years), let's distinguish the ultra light stuff from the other stuff, as i think that most people on this forum want bikes they can ride without fear of frame failure, at a sensible price point.
I would not put my friends on frames thinking that they may "just break like sworks". It's hard enough to make good friends, especially given how often road cyclists are just dicks, i can't start killing them, it's irrational.
