Ordered a new bike yesterday and something ive always wondered is when you spend a fair amount of money on a bike why dont they come with a set of pedals?

Because pedals are quite a personal choice. No point supplying something that’s going to get binned.

Bit like the reflectors.

They expect you’ll have your own preferance eg: shimano ect so you wouldn’t want to pay for crank brothers if thats whet they fitted.

Yep, as above. Much the same reason why they come with rubbish pedals and grips. It’s expected you’ll change them, so it’s never the reason you’d buy the bike. As such, corners can be cut on costs there to get better margins on the bits where it might sway your opinion.

1st things that get changed on a new bike –
grips
saddle
pedals (if supplied)

Not supplying pedals, on a mid to high end bike, makes sense.

no pedals, not a complete bike. then dosent need to comply with road reg’s..

And I should think a fair few oem tyres go pretty quickly as well.

And I should think a fair few oem tyres go pretty quickly as well.

Indeed. OEM tyres are often, if not always, cheaper versions of the real thing. Lower quality rubber etc.

Corner cut to protect margins, however, with tyres, many people are fooled in to thinking it’s a “real” tyre, not the OEM version.

‘Dale used to be really cheap on BBs, as they assumed it was the “hidden” part no one cared about.

‘Dale used to be really cheap on BBs, as they assumed it was the “hidden” part no one cared about.

All the visible parts on my old Boardman HT Pro were top quality – every single bearing was made of cheese (though mostly cartridge cheese…)

I knew people would say pedals, for me stem and bar combo is the biggest personal preference on a bike but you wouldn’t ever buy one without.
i guess the “no pedals, no regs” point is a biggie. I take it then if a bike comes with pedals then it must also have reflectors to be fully road legal?