When off the peg new bikes start costing more than some new cars - !

[Drago]

My clothes come from Millets if i'm feeling flush, or I rob scarecrows for the rest.

 

[clid61]

I get frightened when my son shows me his new guitar !

 

[Drago]

I get frightened when my son shows me his new guitar !

euphemism?

 

[clid61]

euphemism?

Nope !!! He's a guitarist in a band currently on tour .

 

[freiston]

I don't understand your point here. Do you mean it doesn't make sense to pay a higher price for the same thing? That's obviously true, and nobody is suggesting it. But if you mean having more money doesn't mean it's sensible to consider higher entry prices into a market, then I think that is obviously false.

I'll elaborate:

Sure, but doesn't the possession of money also help determine what's sensible to spend?

It isn't the amount of money you have that determines what is a sensible price to pay (aka "spend").

Surely a sensible level of expenditure depends on how much you have?

Having more money doesn't make a more expensive purchase more sensible - the lack of money can put the most sensible purchase out of reach - sometimes there is a price at below which the product will be crap - if you can't afford that price then you can't afford a sensible purchase of that product. Spending twice as much does not make your purchase twice as sensible.

 

[Smokin Joe]

If the amount of money you spend is irrelevant because it is only a fraction of your disposable income then spending an extra ten grand because you like how the manufacturer writes his name on the down tube is a perfectly sensible option. If you have to go into debt to do it, it isn't.

 

[freiston]

...spending an extra ten grand because you like how the manufacturer writes his name on the down tube is a perfectly sensible option.

Then your definition of sensible is not the same as mine.

 

[screenman]

Then your definition of sensible is not the same as mine.

Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Milkfloat]

I have a mate who spends thousands on bikes/wheels/parts just so that he can feel superior to his mates. Always has to have something more expensive. Albeit this is a chap who I knew from uni who used to tell people how much his clothes cost. He obv has self esteem issues. The takeaway from this is dont buy stuff to impress others, buy it for yourself, and if that means paying 11k for a bike so be it.

Maybe he just likes nice things?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Then your definition of sensible is not the same as mine.

What we spend on a pair of tyres would feed a child in a third world country for a year. Whether the amount you spend on something is sensible or not is entirely relevant to your wealth.

 

[bladesman73]

Maybe he just likes nice things?

Its not that. Everytime one of his mates gets something on a par he will then buy the next one up. Hes been it since I met him at uni 20 years ago.

 

[screenman]

Its not that. Everytime one of his mates gets something on a par he will then buy the next one up. Hes been it since I met him at uni 20 years ago.

Have you thought that he might have a problem that he cannot control.

 

[mustang1]

If you want a really light bike, I reckon 4 or 5 grand should do it. this gives you performance benefits.
If you want an expensive bike so you don't look out of place in Beverley Hills, not even an £11k bike will do it. So quite frankly, this is cheap nonsense. I'm not sure why these people waste my time.
I would rather spend that 11k and get a leather-interior upgrade for my Bentley. Pah.

WASTE OF TIME.

 

[mustang1]

£11k on a HiFi, I know people who've spent more than that on an Amplifier.

I know people who spend more than that on speaker cable. It really does sound better. No really... really it does... wait... where are you going?... it has gold... wait.. it has gold caps... yes... 22k carat gold... what do you mean 18k is better... that's not high end... wait... come back... buy these cables darn it!

 

[mustang1]

They're not really comparable though are they, other than both being a means of transport. My car was not £50k to anyone, ever, and certainly not to me, but it has leather seats better than my sofa, it can maintain a constant interior temperature, it can maintain a constant speed, it can play music in at least four different formats, it can navigate to anywhere in Western Europe, it can carry five people and their luggage at over 100mph, it can safely carry and use a hugely volatile fuel, it can illuminate itself at a variety of different brightness levels and can turn the light on automatically in the dark, it can clean it's own windscreen, and wipes it automatically when it rains, it can charge it's own battery, it can lock itself without being touched, it can travel 12,000 miles without anyone having to do any maintenance and has so far covered approximately 5 times the circumference of the earth without any issues. Cars are amazing complicated pieces of engineering that consist of a range of devices that are complicated in their own different way - the electric windows in a car are many times more complicated than an entire bike, for example.

It seems rather odd to suggest that £11k is cheap for a bike by comparing it to the cost of a machine that is much, much more complicated, created using much, much more material (almost 60% of a cars cost of manufacture is the materials). It's like saying that a McClaren is cheap because the Space Shuttle cost about $200 billion.

Or, in other words, £11k for some carbon fibre and a few cogs is ridiculous.

This is fantastic!