I have the 2012 spesh cataloge beside me from their thing yesterday at ourn local concept store (highlight: JMC’s bike and food!)
As far as I can see where there is a spesh bike available in the same spec in both 26″ and 29″, the 29er is £1-200 more expensive.
Bearing in mind a 21″ frame is not usually any more costly than a 15″ one even if it has a bit more material in it, and bear in mind that I am talking about the exact same spec apart from the rims on a couple of bikes, presumably not available in 29″, I can’t understand how the extra materials involved in longer tubes, fork legs, rims, tyres, tubes, spokes add 10% to the shop floor price, given that the non-marterial costs for building, transporting, storage and sale are largely of not entirely the same. 😕
If it was me, and my assumptions about the cost of producing a 29er are anywhere near the mark, I would be pricing them the same as same-spec 26ers for a few more years to get people ‘converted’.
When it was all steel inbreds and alloy scandals, on-one seemed to manage to do this without the buying power of the big S. There is still no difference in price between the exact same on-one frame where it is available in 2 sizes.