Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 147 total)
  • Why Are Mountain Bikes So Expensive?
  • Shepdon
    Free Member

    I really like the new Orange 5 but by the time I’ve added all the extra’s to the spec list your talking almost £3500 for mountain bike, that’s more than my car.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Uhhh get a cheaper one?

    alexpalacefan
    Full Member

    Or get a more expensive car.

    APF

    druidh
    Free Member

    An Orange 5 you say. Have you considered comparing it to other brands?

    spock
    Free Member

    almost £3500 for mountain bike, that’s more than my car.

    Yes, but it uses more advanced technology and wont cost you the thousands of pounds a year your car costs you.

    Mugboo
    Full Member

    Spock, i’m pretty sure my bikes cost me more a year than my van if you don’t include tax and insurance..

    😳

    Chadders
    Free Member

    Oranges (particularly the full suspensions) are super expensive and very bad value compared to all its competitors.

    This is mainly because the FS ones are welded in Halifax, not Tiawan.
    Also I suspect Orange take a pretty big margin on them.

    for example, An Orange 5 frame is £1399.
    A Santa Cruz Heckler frame Is £899.

    Thats £500 cheaper, for a very similer frame which is every bit as good as the Orange.

    I hate to say this, as i’m a Halifax lad and would love to support Orange. But they are hidiously priced for what they are. and however much I want one I could never justify the expense. I would pay a bit more in order to buy British, but I wont bend over and get **** in the arse for the privalidge.

    klunky
    Free Member

    orange 5 is a british, top of the range mountain bike with sophisticated dampers and brakes etc.
    To compare it to a car you need to compare like for like say a british top end sports car, perhaps an Aston Martin DB9 for around £130,000?

    You are comparing a new bike to a second hand car which is not really the same.
    Perhaps you can purchase a second hand bike which evens things out or get a cheaper bike.
    you can buy a brand spanking new citroen car for £6000 in the garage next to my work (its probably crap) – like wise you can purchase a brand new mountain bike £150 in my lbs (its probably crap).

    etc. etc.

    lipseal
    Free Member

    top of the range mountain bike with sophisticated dampers and brakes etc.

    😯 Eh?

    sc-xc
    Full Member

    LOL @ klunky WTF etc

    klunky
    Free Member

    you dont think the damper from cane creek etc. or the brakes from hope are sophistacted?

    loddrik
    Free Member

    Prices have gone berzerk in the last few years, there’s no way I’d spend 2.5k on a frame, not a chance in hell. But lots of people do, and I’m happy to take second hand ones for a third or less of the price.

    jonb
    Free Member

    klunky has a point. You are comparing a top end bike with a bottom end car. £3500 isn’t a lot for a bike if your other hobby is collecting sports cars.

    Other brands offer much better value IMO. Trek and Specialized for off the peg bikes that work.

    ojom
    Free Member

    you dont think the damper from cane creek etc. or the brakes from hope are sophistacted?

    Nope.

    andrewh
    Free Member

    My rear hub cost more than my car!
    Tune Prince/’98 Mondeo TD.

    What Clunky said is probably correct, compare a £150 Halfords job to a Daewoo Matiz and my Yeti ASR-C to a £1m Mosler.
    You can buy a ‘full-susspension bike’ for £100 from Argos but it won’t be as good as the Orange. Likewise you can buy a Ford Focus for £10k which will look very similar to the Focus WRC Malcolm Wilson will sell you for £3/4m.

    Prices have gone berzerk in the last few years, there’s no way I’d spend 2.5k on a frame, not a chance in hell. But lots of people do

    And more. Question of priorities though, would I want a nice car and an average bike or the best bike and a banger? know a couple of people who have spent more on their car than their bike, mad people.

    poppa
    Free Member

    I would pay a bit more in order to buy British, but I wont bend over and get **** in the arse for the privalidge.

    Sounds like your LBS has a pretty exotic pricing policy.

    sc-xc
    Full Member

    Orange are hardly Aston Martin though. More Land Rover.

    loddrik
    Free Member

    The level of technology in, say, and Orange Five, doesn’t even come close to the technology found in even a relatively basic car, please don’t try and pretend otherwise. Bike companies charge a fortune because people are gullible and want new tech as they think it’ll make them ride better and look good in the car park, and people will pay…

    Chadders
    Free Member

    WILL EVERYONE STOP COMPARING BIKES TO CARS – GETTING REDICULUS AND POINTLESS!

    (breath)

    c

    klunky
    Free Member

    I think you can get my point though.

    A good mountain bike costs around £600ish. A really good one costs much much more if buying new.
    For second hand the same situation – less 60%ish ??

    Chadders
    Free Member

    The most basic car in the world has suspension more sophisticated than most mountain bikes..

    The reason bikes are so expensive is they are made in a much lower volume than cars are

    stuartlangwilson
    Free Member

    Demand is high, so are prices. We keep buying stuff no matter how much it goes up.

    ianpinder
    Free Member

    Because people like me spend £550 on some cranks, to replace their perfectly good cranks.

    andrewh
    Free Member

    A good mountain bike costs around £600ish

    In the same way a good car, like a Golf, costs £15k.
    I’m fortunate enough to have done a few laps of a track in a Ferrari 575 (not mine:-( ) Now every other car I drive feels rubbish. Is a Ferrari really worth £200k? Yes.

    Capt.Kronos
    Free Member

    I do agree, bikes seem to have got mental expensive in the last few years. I haven’t really been riding much of late due to a complicated life, starting to try and get back into it properly… need a new ride… and just looking at the prices is scaring me!

    I had hoped to pick up a decent full sus machine for £1500 – and was expecting mid range from one of the big manufacturers for that. Preferably a decent spec skills compensator in the 150mm travel region 😉 Seems that most bikes of that ilk START at comfortably north of £2k! Basic Trek Remedy is £2,200 for instance… starting to dispair, especially as my finances are being destroyed by the CSA and another wee un enroute for Spring.

    Pah.

    I may have to see if I can reviatalise the Marin Rocky Ridge somehow instead. At least for a year or so.

    palmer77
    Free Member

    I wish I could be sophisticated…

    mrmo
    Free Member

    Prices have gone berzerk in the last few years, there’s no way I’d spend 2.5k on a frame, not a chance in hell. But lots of people do, and I’m happy to take second hand ones for a third or less of the price.

    and Cooks, grafton , srp, Merlin, etc were all cheap?

    No,

    there has always been a stupidly expensive high end. Consider SID SLs were £600 i seem to remember in 95/96 how much would that be now corrected for inflation.

    And in the last couple of years specifically
    exchange rates

    Chadders
    Free Member

    I dont think bikes are more expensive now than 10-12 years ago?

    Even back then you could spend £5k on a sh bike etc.

    To be fair I think you definately get more for your money these days. unless you buy an orange

    spock
    Free Member

    Suspension on bikes like the orange (fox, RS etc) is much more sophisticated than low end cars, high speed, low speed compression, adjustable travel that doesn’t affect spring rate, shim stacks, dual air etc…. And brakes on bikes are more advanced than low end cars too, car brakes are very simple, 1 piston etc .With bikes you get adjustable power(well pad clearance) ,controlled lever stroke (whatever the word is the the cut out that guides the lever on shimano xt levers). Probably not compared to cars designed for performance though

    br
    Free Member

    A bike is a collection of parts, Orange (in this case) do not have control over the cost of the majority of these parts.

    They are also a small scale producer and consequently do not get a particularly good deal on the cost of either the parts nor the tubes/aluminium they make there frame from.

    Which incidentally is why car manufacturers share parts, across not only their own models but with competitors.

    And yes, my bike cost more than my car – but the bike (and its parts) were all new (and are all top ‘spec’), whereas my car is s/h.

    backhander
    Free Member

    you dont think the damper from cane creek etc. or the brakes from hope are sophistacted?

    Nope.

    @thebikechain
    What about damper from fox, brakes from formula?

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Theres two reason why a bike would be expensive – one is the law or diminishing returns – the more value you add to a bike, the fewer people will buy one, because not everyone will pay a bit more for something thats a bit better. Adding that value might be adding material things technology, complexity or nice metal or it might be something that gives a warm feeling in your tunny like prettiness, or cleverness or some misplaced satisfaction if having tubes welded together by white people instead of yellow people. By making and selling less your overheads per bike are higher, which means you have to charge more, which means even fewer people will buy one, which means…… Thats why the difference between a £500 bike and a £5000 bike isn’t as great as between a £50 bike and a £500 one.

    The other might be to control the quantities you sell. If Orange (for instance) priced their bikes to match Specialised they’d sell as many bikes as specialised. They might not want to make and sell that many bikes, deal with that much work, make the investments that that requires, be that kind of business and live that kind of life. They might just want to sell enough bikes to be happy, have happy customers and nothing more.

    There might be a third reason – that cycle buyers and weak willed weirdos who’ll buy any old crap at any old price and the manufacturers are all laughing at them and rubbing their hands with glee as they shake us til all the housekeeping falls out our pockets. But in reality buyers set and limit the prices things can be sold for to a much greater extent than they realise, especially as not one of use needs to buy a bike, let alone one that only gets ridden in circles that start and end in carparks.

    chris_mbuk
    Free Member

    i payed 3220 for my alpine 160 2011

    jond
    Free Member

    By way of comparison, back in ’89 my rigid M600 Cannondale was about 600 quid..

    Bear in mind the exchange rate’s not helped over the last few years – I bought a German recumbent (ok, frame’s probably made in Asia) about two years ago for about 2k, pretty much the same spec is now about 3k. A pity I didn’t buy it with a Rohloff…

    aracer
    Free Member

    Mountain bikes expensive?
    I mean that’s full sus with discs and it’s a Muddy Fox – why exactly do you need to spend 35 times as much?

    andrewh
    Free Member

    Mountain bikes expensive?
    I mean that’s full sus with discs and it’s a Muddy Fox – why exactly do you need to spend 35 times as much?

    I’ve had a car that was cheaper than that! Seriously. And two that were cheaper than the original price (together, not each) £99 is a lot for a bike!

    solamanda
    Free Member

    Motor vehicle companies run a different pricing structure because they make most of their profit over the life of the car in the sale of parts, especially highly profitable crash damage repair parts. In general bike manufacturers can only make their profit at the initial sale point of the bicycle. Therefore the pricing and business structure is much different.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Bike companies charge a fortune

    that’s right, there’s no competition at all 🙄

    anyway I bet this is just a genius troll 😀

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    Orange are hardly Aston Martin though. More Land Rover.

    No, On One = Landrover. 🙂

    you dont think the damper from cane creek etc. or the brakes from hope are sophistacted?

    Nope.

    Well you’d be wrong, because they are. Compare the spec of an MTB shock with that of a car. The MTB one is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in front!

    A bike is a collection of parts, Orange (in this case) do not have control over the cost of the majority of these parts

    But their frame and full bike prices are silly aren’t they? Personally I’ve never been able to see the attraction of Orange. Most of them are pig ugly, for a start (Sorry but they are) and who cares where it’s made? Not me, becasue it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference…. Typical British company though: Stick your head in the sand and keep trying to sell the same old stuff year after year with just a new fancy colour. Think 70s Triumph. That’s what they remind me of….

    jhw
    Free Member

    I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment in the OP particularly as many of the components in the Hope brakes and Cane Creek shock are, beneath all the bluster and sheen, toy (rubber) parts which are prone to breaking down in, for example, cold weather conditions (cf a number of recent posts on here) – surprising given they’re made in Yorkshire. Hope/Cane Creek/Fox bleat about this but the fact is you never hear about MX/car shocks blowing. It’s like how each B-2 costs a billion bucks (due to politics more than the inherent cost), and the tech doesn’t work in the rain. Stupid.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 147 total)

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