Can you tell me where that ~50% price increase actually comes from? AFAIK they both use Toray carbon, have minimal yet decent R&D, and good QC.
I am not bashing Speeder/Adapt or glazing LightCarbon, but I am trying to wrap my head around the positioning here.
Vasegaard puts the Speeder SC-55RD next to the "best China can offer" (Seka, Tavelo, etc.), but in my head, Speeder has always been closer to the OEM tier (LightCarbon, Carbonda) with lower R&D/Aero testing budgets than the "super brands."
I myself would choose a LightCarbon over a Speeder because they seem to be in the exact same tier, just with a lower price tag (maybe because LightCarbon is more aggressive on B2C pricing?).
But this thread is making me doubt that conclusion. Is there something I am missing that justifies the premium or the inclusion in that top-tier list?
I think the tiered list type of thinking really falls apart when you start thinking about Carbonda and Speeder.
The reason here is pretty darn simple. When it comes to how common they are in terms of being rebadged or distributed, those two reach into mainstream brands people know, and in Speeder's case, their forks can be found on really high-end custom builds featured at MADE, Spoken, etc. Speeder components are distributed in many western countries too. This is really different than just being rebadged and sold by a small brand.
Does this make them higher quality? Not necessarily. But, if their forks are willingly accepted and used on $5000 framesets it does indicate that they have reached a higher level of maturity as a business.
As for the cost, you may end up spending much more on higher-end materials and processes that don't yield much noticeable benefit for the customer. Maybe you have a higher internal benchmark for performance or a specific shape you want to achieve because you think it helps you differentiate. That can end up spanning the difference of a few hundred dollars really quickly. Furthermore, if your customers are more professional, they bring higher volumes but are also likely to demand more stringent testing for liability reasons.
Rather than evaluate these companies at a brand level, I would evaluate the frames for what they are. To my knowledge, Lightcarbon doesn't sell anything publicly that matches the Speeder SC55RD. LTK does with the 266-D-SL. Once the costs come together, the pricing isn't that different.
Speaking of Carbonda, on paper Quick Pro, right now, seems ahead of everyone else in terms of both value and specs if you are looking at the UR:One or ER:One as complete bikes.
