I’ll pop the kettle on…

Rrp of the frame is £3400 iirc, wheels (I assume the Reynolds carbon ones?) are nearer £2k
Edit: £3100 for the frame

Full bikes can be had for sub 6k with cable xtr/xt and Alu wheels. Hell, even going 1x on the Di2 knocks £800 off the £9.4k

My 429 SL W/xx1 eagle and DT Swiss xmc1200 carbon wheels (no dropper though) RRP 6900. Bargain.

Margins really aren’t great if the dealer isn’t a pro dealer (based on the number of frames sold) with pivot either.

Not 10k, but I have 2 that are over £8k (Di2 didn’t exist for mtb when I bought them in 2014, glad it didn’t as I would have bought it, but have since tried it and hated it)

They are wonderful. As good as a bike can get and as such I never have a feeling of ‘it would be better if I had a ……’

Are bikes half the price rubbish in comparison? Of course not, but how often do you see spec compromises on bikes like that, a slightly too heavy frame, oem finishing kit, crap tyres etc, little things that niggle at you (well me anyway) that could be a bit better?

You don’t add up the RRP of frame only and all the components to get the price of a full bike. You expect a better deal for buying a complete bike (as bike companies pay a fraction of RRP for groupsets & bits).

A few of these £9 and £10k bikes that are popping up now might sell to mugs, but are mainly there as a marketing exercise, I suspect.

@chakaping

I thought the same on a few bikes, they don’t appear to be the sum of their parts, even if you forget CRC exists and work off RRP.

The way around it for bike makers seems to be the ‘special frames’ like spesh used to do with the ‘S Works’ Alu frames which were different in some way, but no one seemed to know how – you wouldn’t see it in black and white.

Anyway, for Intense that’s the ‘SL’ frames, they come with Ti bolts and supposedly different carbon frames, like the C and CC Santa Cruzes.

I’m a terrible cynic, but I have my doubts. Still great bikes, great price tags, I’d love to own one – but by the time my eldest is self-sufficient I’ll be nearly 60, not sure I’ll fancy a razor sharp enduro race bike by then, they’ll probably be £20k by then and made of graphane or something.

Few little things like inflation and a weaker pound don’t help.
On top of that stuff exists now as said before. Somebody mentioned the s works line and the santa Cruz cc. I had an S works alu bike it was lighter than the normal one due to it using a different more expensive aluminium grade. C vs cc is in the carbon layup, they found a cheaper way to do it but it was heavier to get the strength.
Who buys them? I know people with high disposable income who do. I also know plenty who are sponsored or in the trade riding them, rrp was never considered in those deals.
If you didn’t offer a bike that compares with your race offerings you would be mad,