The price of bikes.

[cougie uk]

Meanwhile elsewhere on the forums someone is buying training wheels for over £600...

 

[Daninplymouth]

On just the frame?!!!!

No that was the whole bike. The frame itself is £1300 don’t get me wrong I’m really enjoying the bike and would recommend it to anyone. However nice you word it, it is just a few Ali tubes and you can buy complete bikes from the big names for less with Ali frames so in that sense it is massively overpriced if you look it the numbers

 

[vickster]

No that was the whole bike. The frame itself is £1300 don’t get me wrong I’m really enjoying the bike and would recommend it to anyone. However nice you word it, it is just a few Ali tubes and you can buy complete bikes from the big names for less with Ali frames so in that sense it is massively overpriced if you look it the numbers

Should’ve got steel or Ti for that money

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The industry is massively overpricing a lot of bikes - but it's the buyers fault for continuing to buy them at inflated prices. You're all mugging yourselves off if you stump up the cash, despite knowing full well that the manufacturers are taking the piss.
If you want to restore some sanity then collectively go on a buyer's strike for a year or two. Don't buy anything unless it's genuinely good value. Keep riding what you've already got and keep your cash in your pockets. Once you screw the manufacturers cashflow by refusing to pay the rip-off prices then they will have to either moderate them or risk going out of business for lack of sales.
It's no good complaining about rampant bike price inflation then still going out and buying new bikes at inflated prices regardless. The industry is just laughing at you. Boycott them. Leave all the new stuff in their warehouses where it's costing them money to store it and bringing in no revenue.

 

[DCBassman]

Haha, brand-new bike, what's one o'they then?

 

[mickle]

My Great Great Aunty Edna once made a snide comment about the worth of one of my bikes. She was obliged to retract when I reminded her how much she and her late husband Reg had paid (in cash because Reg refused to buy anything on the Never Never) for their his 'n' hers matching Raleigh All Steel 3speed roadsters. And we compared the price of them to what she and Reg were earning in the 1930's and it amounted to a little over what they took home in a month. For shitty Raleighs.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The Raleighs weren't shitty though. They were pretty much the benchmark standard for 3-speeds. Two weeks wages apiece would have been about right for a quality utility bike back then. They were significantly better made than the cheapest bikes available now for a day or twos wages.
Mass produced bikes have got cheaper in real terms over the years due to more productive manufacturing, especially automation of individual component parts. Until now that is. What we are currently seeing is an opportunistic industry attempt to reset the prices of bikes upwards relative to wages, using the pandemic diruption as both an excuse and a pricing confusion factor. They are hoping the customer will quickly forget how much a bike of a certain quality spec used to cost before the pandemic and will accept higher pricing for lower specs as normal.

 

[mickle]

The Raleighs weren't shitty though. They were pretty much the benchmark standard for 3-speeds. Two weeks wages apiece would have been about right for a quality utility bike back then. They were significantly better made than the cheapest bikes available now for a day or twos wages.
Mass produced bikes have got cheaper in real terms over the years due to more productive manufacturing, especially automation of individual component parts. Until now that is. What we are currently seeing is an opportunistic industry attempt to reset the prices of bikes upwards relative to wages, using the pandemic diruption as both an excuse and a pricing confusion factor. They are hoping the customer will quickly forget how much a bike of a certain quality spec used to cost before the pandemic and will accept higher pricing for lower specs as normal.

I believe, John, that you are pedalling a conspiracy theory.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

They are hoping the customer will quickly forget how much a bike of a certain quality spec used to cost before the pandemic and will accept higher pricing for lower specs as normal.

I think that part is a very astute observation, manufacturers have bumped prices up but that's expected to an extent. What has shocked me is how they've downgraded spec simultaneously. 2 years ago if you were buying a road bike between one and 1.5 thousand you'd be getting Tiagra as a bare minimum, more likely full 105. Now they're kicking out bikes at that general range with a 15-20% premium, and Sora groupsets. There's nothing wrong with Sora but as a reminder, even 400 quid Carrera bikes from Halfords come with Sora.
So the price raising I get, but the simultaneous downgrading stinks.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I believe, John, that you are pedalling a conspiracy theory.

No conspiracy theory at all. Just opportunistic price ramping. What better cover than a disruptive global event to bump up profit margins?. The downgrading of component specs is the cycling equivalent of shrinkflation with groceries. Obviously they can't do that with bikes, because they have to be sized to fit the rider, so they shrink the quality of the parts instead whilst simultaneously hiking prices. Even if the prices moderate a bit in the coming months I bet the component quality won't be restored to pre-pandemic levels!

 

[Blue Hills]

I believe, John, that you are pedalling a conspiracy theory.

wot, suppliers of a commodity in short supply trying to ramp up prices/boost margins?

 

[Sittingduck]

I think that part is a very astute observation, manufacturers have bumped prices up but that's expected to an extent. What has shocked me is how they've downgraded spec simultaneously. 2 years ago if you were buying a road bike between one and 1.5 thousand you'd be getting Tiagra as a bare minimum, more likely full 105. Now they're kicking out bikes at that general range with a 15-20% premium, and Sora groupsets. There's nothing wrong with Sora but as a reminder, even 400 quid Carrera bikes from Halfords come with Sora.
So the price raising I get, but the simultaneous downgrading stinks.

Even thinking of a grand and a half for Tiagra almost makes me sick in my mouth. I know the technology is meant to trickle down and all that but the spec of some of these 2 grand plus bikes brings a tear to my eye… modest, at best!

 

[C R]

I believe, John, that you are pedalling a conspiracy theory.

Is conspiracy theory the new name for a skip special?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Bikes are a mature technology. Aside from Di2, there is really no new technology to trickle down. Frame geometry was optimised decades ago. Tyre construction hasn't really changed much in materials or ply deployment. Puncture protection isn't new. There's three mainstream frame materials and one niche one, and that situation has been the same for a couple of decades. No new materials have entered the market for 30 years. Transmission refinements like optimised tooth profiles for smoother shifting have also been around for decades. The only trends now are for carbon fibre to appear as an option a bit lower down the price hierachy than used to be the case, and more attention is paid to aerodynamic drag in the upper half of the market..

 

[Smokin Joe]

There is a shortage of bikes and components. When a commodity is in short supply and outstripped by demand prices will rise, the same as they would with bread, phones, shoes and everything else.

When supply increases and traders are fighting for market share they will rebalance. You'd have to be pretty stupid to sell your product for less than you can get for it.