If people bought a single fork instead of pairs and sets, maybe it would be cheaper.

i use a spork, cut my cultery bills down by a 3rd instantly!

Munqe-chick – Member

skyline your argument is flawed as trickling down technology means little or no price increase.

No, it doesn’t, trickle-down has no bearing on cost at all, just availability.

jimjam – Member

in your initial post you said that prices have increased in line with performance, I don’t see that. So Rockshox have tweaked their damper and called it Blackbox so it sounds all factory, oooooh please take my money, take it all!!

Motion control to blackbox is a pretty big difference performance wise. And it’s not the only change- look at today’s Revelation vs 2007’s, as well as the improved damping you can get a 150mm fork with a maxle in it that’s lighter than the 2007 130mm fork with a quick release in it.

Mind you I only paid £300 for my Teams so no wonder I’m not complaining about prices 😉

northwind, if it’s unaffordable it’s unavailable so surely your differentiation is theoretical? Going back to my motorbike argument, most “sports” bikes have slipper clutches now, and cost no more because of it. Ducati put high tech parts on their bikes (rider-adjustable traction control for instance) but I dont count that as “trickle down” when the bike it appears on cost £15,000+. And putting it on three different £15000 bikes makes it more “available”. When the same feature appears on a £7K mass market bike, that (to me at least) is trickle down. Surely thats the point of using the word “down”, as it is finding its way down the market/price structure. At least thats my laymans take on it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_effect

If your higher performing 2011 Revelation cost the same as the 2007 Rev then surely that is trickle-down, but if it costs substantially more then it isnt.

The cost of forks especially seems to have skyrocketed over the years. I bought (expensive at the time) Pace RC39 for £400 – they lasted a few years, but then the DT Swiss equivalent was over £700 for basically the same fork. Fox are the same, and Rockshox too. The people setting the price points (manufacturers or importers) are charging what they know people will pay, but I do believe that many (including me) are now lowering their sights to good 2nd had parts (bought a pair of 2 year old, but unmarked Fox F100’s for less than £200 off here – they’re over £500 new!) For me it’s easy: if enough people stop buying new, prices will have to come down (or 2nd hand prices go up, which I hope won’t happen).

TBH I have only ever bought one set of forks new, and they were half price in the sale. If prices keep going up like they do, more and more people are just going to buy second hand, which will surely hurt sales figures of new forks..

For me it’s easy: if enough people stop buying new, prices will have to come down (or 2nd hand prices go up, which I hope won’t happen).

not sure why second hand forks would be on the Market in the first place though, unless people were buying new ones? 😕

Motion control to blackbox is a pretty big difference performance wise. And it’s not the only change- look at today’s Revelation vs 2007’s, as well as the improved damping you can get a 150mm fork with a maxle in it that’s lighter than the 2007 130mm fork with a quick release in it.

Mind you I only paid £300 for my Teams so no wonder I’m not complaining about prices

Congratulations, you’ve been sucked in by the marketing department. Perfect example.

The reality is, “motion control to blackbox” makes f-ck all difference, 99.999% of the time.

But the marketing departments don’t want you to think that 😉

For the record, I have: 1st gen Fox 36s TALAS (2006 – brown ones) – £100 posted; mk1 Monsters (1999) – £80 posted, and 200x (can’t remember year – around 04/05?) Marzocchi AM’s – £60 posted.

£10 says they work just as well as your £1000 forks 😉

loddrik – Member
TBH I have only ever bought one set of forks new, and they were half price in the sale. If prices keep going up like they do, more and more people are just going to buy second hand, which will surely hurt sales figures of new forks..
POSTED 11 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

again. I can’t see how this situation would be sustainable. Where’s all the second hand forks coming from if we all stopped buying new ones?

Munqe-chick, more expensive isn’t the same as unaffordable. Clearly £750 forks aren’t unaffordable, loads of people buy them instead of Suntour XCRs for £60.

xiphon – Member

Congratulations, you’ve been sucked in by the marketing department. Perfect example.

The reality is, “motion control to blackbox” makes f-ck all difference, 99.999% of the time.

For a long time I was running a BB fork on one bike and a moco on the other, the difference is pretty unmissable as soon as the fork starts working for its living. I’m sure some people can’t tell the difference, then again, some people can’t tell when they’ve got a flat tyre either.