Updated September 15, 2025 04:40PM
Sponsor Content: VISION
How Your Favorite Carbon Components Are Made: Touring the VISION Factory
From research and development to laying up carbon by hand, curing, and final testing, this is the full story behind the tech that powers the pros.
Ever wondered how raw carbon turns into race-ready wheels? Shoddy Dave headed to the FSA-VISION carbon factory in Taichung, Taiwan to find out just how VISION creates components, and turns already great products into the next industry leading gear used by pros and top riders the world over.
We’ll let you in on a little secret: it involves testing gear to the limits — and finding those limits means breaking stuff. It hurts a little on the inside to watch top-tier gear get hit beyond anything it would reasonably see in the real world, but there’s no other way to know how exactly how strong something is than by taking it right up to its limits (and a little beyond).
From research and development to laying up components by hand, curing, and final testing, this is the full story behind the tech that powers the pros, and it’s all done in-house by VISION.
From computer testing to tangible product
It starts with digital designs and CFD analysis, with engineers making hundreds of revisions to yield the exact product that VISION wants. Before any product becomes real, it has already been thoroughly analyzed and virtually tested.
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Next, the engineering team has to bring those computer renderings to reality, figuring out the best way to take what they’ve designed and turn it into a real product.
State of the art machinery cuts carbon fiber into the exact pieces VISION needs to lay-up any of its carbon components. From there, Shoddy learns how those pieces are laid up by skilled workers and machines, then cured and finished into the final products that go on bikes all over the world.
When it comes to wheels, VISION ensures each one is perfect heading out the door by essentially building each one twice — once to check the tension on the carbon spokes, and the second to make sure everything is within the right tolerances before heading out the door.
It’s a fascinating collaboration of machinery and skilled workers completing each of these processes to create a final product.
Breaking wheels to make them better
After learning how everything is made, Shoddy then gets time to roam the factory, where he learns what goes into the testing of high-end carbon components to make sure they’re up to every use case riders can throw at them, from ascending the highest peaks to taking on the brutal cobbles of Paris-Roubaix.
You may want to avert your eyes for this part if watching state of the art equipment get purposely destroyed makes your heart hurt (you’re not alone). But nevertheless, it’s fascinating to learn the limits of carbon components and how carbon components are continuously made better.
Ready to see the whole process for yourself? Then hit that play button and let Shoddy Dave guide you through the whole process from idea to final product.
Andrew Hood, aka “EuroHoody,” is the European editor for Velo. Since joining the title in 2002, he’s been chasing bike races all over the world. He’s covered dozens editions of the spring classics and the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España, as well as numerous world championships in road, track, and mountain biking. He’s also covered five Olympic Games and traveled across six continents chasing bike races. Beyond the Outside cycling network, his work has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, SKI, Traveler Magazine, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, and Denver Post. He’s appeared on CNN, NBC, NPR, and BBC. Chances are if there’s a bike race, EuroHoody’s been to it, or will be going soon. 
Betsy is a senior editor at VeloNews. Before that, she was a Spanish teacher and most recently, a Registered Nurse working in community health. She’s been freelancing about bikes and other outdoors and health-related topics for over a decade. When she’s not riding or writing, Betsy adores traveling. In 2016, she started, and will one day finish, bikepacking the length of the Baja Divide.
Based in the cycling haven of the Isle of Man, Sadhbh O’Shea has been writing about cycling for almost 10 years. She has covered too many bike races to count, including all three grand tours and a whole host of monuments. 
I’m a UK-based editor and reporter focusing on road racing, training, and nutrition.
I’ve developed a bank of experience working on the ground at all three grand tours, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianche, road worlds, and many more.
I have my own ‘