Bike prices

[jay clock]

My first road bike in 2004 was £500 RRP and I paid £400. I now have a lovely road bike with lovely new wheels (these were over 40% off the RRP) and the whole shebang mist be worth about £3000+. Am I faster? Well, just analysed my years of data and EXACTLY the same (25.8kmh). This is only based on those rides that I bothered to record accurate times, and the newer bike does include Ironman and all the long training rides.

 

[Xiorell]

I could only imagine bikes with that price tag being any real use to propper sports people.
I suppose if I had shed loads of money then yeah, why not spend 8k on a bike, same as being a millionair, you could buy a perfectly good car for 25grand new, and never want for more but if you had that kinda cash sitting about why not buy an Aston or something if you so wish.

I can't see myself ever needing more than a grands worth of bike, my current one was about 500 it's mint. I might give MTBs another go, another 500quid will get something that'll fill my level of offroading and more, but then if I was planning to ride it down the sides of mountains I'd want to spend more.

 

[tyred]

I suppose there are people gullible enough to believe that an £8,000 pound bike genuinely will make you a much faster cyclist. I'm realistic enough to know that even if I had an £8,000 bike, Lance Armstrong could still leave me for dead even if he was riding Tesco's finest double bouncer.

 

[snailracer]

My first road bike in 2004 was £500 RRP and I paid £400. I now have a lovely road bike with lovely new wheels (these were over 40% off the RRP) and the whole shebang mist be worth about £3000+. Am I faster? Well, just analysed my years of data and EXACTLY the same (25.8kmh). This is only based on those rides that I bothered to record accurate times, and the newer bike does include Ironman and all the long training rides.

There was a study performed which analysed how much faster road bikes have got in the TdF over about the last 100 years: bottom line, 6%.

Considering that the early road bikes had 40kg frames and were single-speed, that doesn't seem like much. However, it does seem to correlate with your observation that the bike doesn't make much difference.

 

[lukesdad]

You could allways spend the £8000 on 3 or 4 decent bikes for different disciplines. Some would also say the bike is their main or only form of transport. Mind even I wouldn t spend £ 8000 on a commuter

 

[snailracer]

You could allways spend the £8000 on 3 or 4 decent bikes for different disciplines. Some would also say the bike is their main or only form of transport. Mind even I wouldn t spend £ 8000 on a commuter

If it had 4 wheels and an engine, that would be a fair price

 

[mickle]

I hope that the fact that £8000 bikes exist will seep into the general public's conciousness and start to erode the myth that bicycles cost less than a tank of petrol and are ridden only by people too poor to buy a car.

 

[rowan 46]

As has been pointed out by many there is a law of diminishing returns in objects. especially in enthusiast objects. whether it's photography, music, astronomy, cycling,motoring et al there is a price point where an object can do the job well. After that to get the last few per cent the price rises steeply. I can't afford an £8000 bike. Would I notice the difference over mine? probably. Would I notice the difference over a £6000 bike probably not at least not with my level of cycling. The fact is though I will probably never get to the level where I am getting the best out of a top end bike. In formula 1 it's said that it costs a million pounds to take .1 seconds off a lap. I suspect its something of that order to produce %1 efficiency in any object. It will cost more to produce a top end bike or other enthusiast object and they will not sell as many which pushes the price up even more. Are they a waste of money? for me yes I will never be skilled or discerning enough to fully appreciate their characteristics but I would still love to be able to own one of these objects.

 

[Mugshot]

There was a study performed which analysed how much faster road bikes have got in the TdF over about the last 100 years: bottom line, 6%.

Couldn't that be the riders have got faster by 6% over the past 100 years, and if so, how so?

 

[mickle]

Couldn't that be the riders have got faster by 6% over the past 100 years, and if so, how so?

Better diets and training might be the obvious ones.

 

[Mugshot]

Better diets and training might be the obvious ones.

Quite likely.
I really know nothing about this (as I'm sure is blindingly obvious) but has a top rider from say 50 years ago ever said he could have beaten the whippersnappers of today and used the fact that he was performing similar times on bikes which were twice as heavy?

 

[Nebulous]

People have a limited ability to see beyond where they are at the moment. I remember seeing a programme about lottery winners. The person on the programme, who advises winners said almost everybody who has a serious win ends up in the big house with 5 acre grounds, pond and everything that goes with that. Some of them take several moves to get there though. You go from the 3 bed semi to the 4 or 5 bedroom detached then land up with the mansion house.

Bikes are the same. I have an £800 Allez Elite that I paid £543 for.

The height of my ambition at the moment would be a £1500 Tarmac. I just cannot comprehend a situation where I would buy an £8000 bike.

 

[snailracer]

Couldn't that be the riders have got faster by 6% over the past 100 years, and if so, how so?

TdF speeds increased about 50-55% over its history. The riders improved by something like 45% IIRC. The other factors were the introduction of paved roads and the TdF course being progressively shortened. But the improvement due to faster bikes was only 6%, according to the study.

 

[snailracer]

Better diets and training might be the obvious ones.

<cough> doping <cough>

 

[petenats]

I suppose it also depends what you are paying for and if you feel that is worth it.

I've been looking at Cervolo's, amazing frames, the R3 being on the Paris-Roubaix podium means that in standard guise it's as much as most people would ever need, and definitely more bike than I'll find the limits of! The designs are all from Canada but the carbon laid in China with the quality control being maintained by Cervelo. Those are the bikes that the race team use...however a lot of the research into new bikes and manufacture is done in a special plant in California. They now produce a small number (one per week) of frames by hand. The frame is 300g lighter than the Chinese production line one (albeit a hand made production line and already under 1kg) and hand prepped and formed in the design plant. The frame then costs almost triple! Does it ride better, the pro's say yes. Would the average mortal know...no. Can you race the bike from California? Not without adding close to 300g to it to make it legal!!!

The point is what are you paying for? The hand made top of the range bike with cutting edge technology. Tech which was only available to the race teams but as some people wanted it they can now buy it. Most people do not care about those last few grams of weight saving, eating one less burger is much cheaper for most of us, but some people can afford it and do want that state of the art machine. The same tech does trickle down to a more mortal price point in future years. Look at Di2 and now Ui2, I suspect next year will have a 105i2! It all depends on how long you are prepared to wait...for some not long if they can pay now.

Peoples hobbies are also different. For some the latest golf clubs, memberships, travel to courses round the country and golfing paraphernalia run into many thousands. Others take flying lessons and buy a share of an aircraft or hundreds of pounds per hour in hire. Track day motorcycling costs thousands with trailers parts and race tyres which are worn by the end of a weekend not to mention the bike itself! There are countless hobbies and pastimes where a one off payment of £8000 that would last years may seem very good value.

It doesn't make an £8000 bike cheap or for some remotely justifiable, it does however need to be put into context of what some are willing to spend on their hobbies, pastimes and sports!

Pete