  We study the class of endlessly single-mode all-silica photonic crystal
fibers with a triangular air-hole cladding. We consider the sensibility to
longitudinal nonuniformities and the consequences and limitations for realizing
low-loss large-mode area photonic crystal fibers. We also discuss the
dominating scattering mechanism and experimentally we confirm that both macro
and micro-bending can be the limiting factor.
