when I saw this bike on eurobike I wasnt this impressed. the bike had already small cracks around the pivot of the rear swingarm. if this frame was this strong where were these cracks coming from? perhaps someone was pogoing around on the bike to much so it failed? but the best part of the story were the gt guys when asked about the cracks: "oh these are only cosmetic and structurally no problem at all." wtf is that? of course cracks are absolutely of no problem (even in aluminium frames) they are there to let the frame breathe fresh air or what? If its the philosophy of this manufacturer to tell storys like this I see no way to ever buy anything from this guys. the problem I see about carbon frames in general are two things: poor manufacturing (even the best frames get only to about half of the strength claimed in the literature) and and the main point is:
carbon is about 2 times as strong as aluminium in the main direction but only half as strong if the forces are applied in a 90 degree angle to this "planned" direction. so whats the direction of forces on a downhill frame? as the influences are so different and so complex the material is loosing all the advantages on optimising into one direction. in my oppinion its better used in road and cc aplications where there is no sidwards landing, noseheavy landing, contact to rocks and trees and things like that.