At a cafe stop last week I picked up a copy of the mag from 2005 with a Buyers Guide inside. Thought it would be interesting to compare prices for bikes , not etc . Pre inter web take over so plenty of double page adverts for CRC , Wiggle etc . What surprised me was prices for bikes , parts and clothing haven't really altered that much especially considering how things have moved on .
Back then it was 26" , 120mm travel , still on narrow bars , tyres were mainly hard plastic compound , nothing electronic . I'm guessing waterproof gear actually worked then albeit it weighed a ton . Admittedly there weren't any £10K bikes but hen again us mere mortals don't consider them anyway
Back then, the absolute top of most brands ranges was about £5k, that’s barely mid range now.
This has the same RRP as my ebike. We are being rinsed
Neither are equivalent to a 2005 mountain bike though, or a 2025 one.
When I first started getting into mountain bikes in the mid 90s I seem to recall MBUK said 400 pound would be the point where you got a proper off road capable bike . 400 quid in 2025 is about 830 now which would nearly get you a Sonder hardtail .
High end bikes have always been expensive but e bikes have taken things to a new level . My local bikeshop has one of the new forbidden ebikes with the fancy motors and it's gorgeous and I want one but the price is just not something I can see myself spending.
Comparing apples and carrots? E Bikes weren't even a thing then . £5K may be mid range to some people , others like me that's my limit.My Rise was just over that beyond that is funny money .
I see some E Bikes at 5 figure sums as an irrelevance to me .
Normal bikes are only at an 'acceptable' price point still because they aren't selling.
If ebikes didn't exist we would no doubt be seeing more well overpriced mtb's.
Even before emtb's people would compare the price of pushbikes with motorbikes and comment what a rip off they were
The Artistformerly...has it nailed. There are c 47 million ebikes manufactured annually compared to 62 million motorbikes. So it's not really a production scale issue (especially with so few motor manufacturers) So I can buy a brand new, very well equipped large capacity motorbike that'll take 2 of us and a bit of luggage all over the continent for tens of thousands of miles...or a push bike with a battery and motor. Seems mad.
Maybe if you pay full price. Plenty of deals out there, plenty of second hand bargains. When I got back into mountain biking in 2002 I bought an Orange E6 for £1250. In 2019 the equivalent money £1800 got me a Bird Zero 29.
The Orange had v brakes, forks that stopped working when it rained and terrifying tyres. V brakes could wear out a rim and multiple pads in one winter. The Bird is light years ahead and still going strong 5 years later. I had to replace the rear rim, tyres, chain etc but most of it still just works. Modern bikes are so much better, the mountain biking I can do now isn't even the same sport as 20 years ago.
If there are 47 million e-bikes made (I don't have the numbers), compare that to the ~6 million sold in Europe each year where majority of those are city bikes. E-MTB is a fairly small part of the overall number. They're all contract manufactured too so there's more margin layers to add up and compound before RRP.
If ebikes didn't exist we would no doubt be seeing more well overpriced mtb's.
To some extent maybe, but someone will always want to undercut the biggest brands. Free markets find the value of a product.
I'd say the main problem in the bike industry is over supply combined with lack of differentiation, adds up to devaluation - I don't think much is selling at a high margin apart from the top end must-have tech which is the bike industry's veblen goods class. (plus an element of that sort of kit selling to richer folks who still have cash to spend). If there were big profits to make the Private Equity guys getting into all this wouldn't be getting burned as often as they are.
I bought my Mk1 Santa Cruz Nomad in 2006, pretty sure it was an eye watering £1700 for the frame at the time. Can't remember how much all the other bits were but £4k wouldn't be far out I think.
If you compare to current 'boutique' frames (SC still were back then!) then prices haven't really changed that much for the top end imo.
Even in COVID I thought what you got for your (inflation adjusted money) was great compared with when I started in the mid 2000s!
Ebikes are just a different thing, but there are very reasonably priced versions that are great. You just have to avoid getting sucked into needing the top spec S-works with kashima. High mod carbon and ugly stancions will have no impact on the ride and are just there to have something more expensive for people who want to spend more.
Further down the range and they are still great! I hired a bottom of the range norco from grizedale a while back and the much maligned rockshox 35 was not as good as my gripe foxes, but still great! The only thing I really noticed was high tire pressures as it wasn't tubeless!
“This has the same RRP as my ebike. We are being rinsed”
If we are, why are so many bike companies going bust or struggling? Are they all incompetently run?
It would be cheaper to make MTBs if they could be heavier and one size fits all.
I got my first full-sus bike in 2006 or 2007, it was a top end Giant Anthem with Fox boingers, Crossmax SL wheels, carbon finishing kit and Sram XO 2x10 (IIRC) - with an RRP of £3k (I was lucky enough to get it trade price from Giant UK at £1.4k).
The new 2026 Anthem starts at $5,600 (USD) for Eagle 90, but you do get a carbon frame and a Giant-branded dropper.
Maybe the higher end Spesh Chisel FS is a better comparison, as it's aluminium and £3k - and that's got GX Eagle and some own brand bits. Basically it'll be a fair bit heavier, not as trick, but faster and probably more reliable.
Is that a fair summary overall of then vs. now?
When I first started getting into mountain bikes in the mid 90s I seem to recall MBUK said 400 pound would be the point where you got a proper off road capable bike . 400 quid in 2025 is about 830 now which would nearly get you a Sonder hardtail .
This Tallies, IIRC I paid about that in the mid 90s for a (rigid) Fire Mountain, Before that a Wee bit less for a Diamondback Ascent EX...
High end bikes have always been expensive but e bikes have taken things to a new level . My local bikeshop has one of the new forbidden ebikes with the fancy motors and it's gorgeous and I want one but the price is just not something I can see myself spending.
I sort of feel like E-bikes fall outside the conversation, They've only really been a thing for maybe Five years? (as in high end E-MTBs designed for use on muddy trails with obstacles and jumps). All the new (leccy) components and features are a bolt on to the humble old MTB, plus the frames required new features and tooling.
It's a bit like looking at a Polestar or a Tesla and asking why £20K more that an inflation adjusted Focus from the early 2000s; Aside from having the same number of wheels they're almost completely different products.
This has the same RRP as my ebike. We are being rinsed
People using ebikes are. Non-e bikes seem like pretty good value, tbh, in terms of the tech, design, capabilities built in. IF you're ever in any doubt, just compare the price of a mid-upper level road bike to a decent FS trail bike...
I think certain parts have gone up much more in price than others (based on RRP rather than sale price). When I was looking through some old MBUK's the price of suspension forks was quite similar. Technology has moved on which will impact price, carbon wheels weren't a thing 10+ years ago.
The Artistformerly...has it nailed. There are c 47 million ebikes manufactured annually compared to 62 million motorbikes. So it's not really a production scale issue (especially with so few motor manufacturers) So I can buy a brand new, very well equipped large capacity motorbike that'll take 2 of us and a bit of luggage all over the continent for tens of thousands of miles...or a push bike with a battery and motor. Seems mad.
I don't know the motorbike industry, but I'd put money on the bulk of the market being dominated by relatively few large motorbike brands, whereas the ebike market is split across a huge number of small brands (who purchase 3-4 different motors) - so while the overall numbers aren't massively different, there's absolutely a difference in economies of scale.
And, as others pointed out here, each and every MTB model comes in 4, 5 or 6 different sizes, 3-10 different specs - the SKUs of a MTB brand are huge. Lets say, conservatively, you have a 150mm eMTB, 4 sizes, 3 spec models - thats 12 SKUs in itself - add in 2 colour options and you're at 24. and that's just one model... Your (small) bike company offers 3 analogue bikes and 2 eMTBs - 120 SKUs.
When it comes to value, ultimately as much as we'd all love MTB brands to act like not-for-profits, they're actually real-life businesses, with manufacturing, development, distribution, property, staff and marketing costs, as well as (gasp) profits to make.
Obviously sums are having to be re-done at the moment, as, as mentioned, brands are going under and a lot of them are struggling post Covid. But, when a brand prices a bike at £8k, they're not just sticking their fingers in the air and plucking out a price, they're doing sums on its costs, margins, dealer mark-ups and the price elasticity of MTBs at the moment. When they get their sums wrong either they run out of stock (price too low) or they have to put bikes on sale (price too high).
carbon wheels weren't a thing 10+ years ago.
They absolutely were. I have some Enve 27.5 carbon rims from 2013, and they’d been around a few years then, looks like they got into DH racing in 2010
I sort of feel like E-bikes fall outside the conversation, They've only really been a thing for maybe Five years?
Gen 1 Specialized Turbo Levo came out in 2015/16 X01, decent suspension, dropper etc was £5k RRP
time flies eh?
Back in 2009 I bought a carbon Yeti full suss, Magura forks, Tune hubs, carbon cranks, prototype Formula brakes and XTR everything else for £5k.
That was around six months of my take-home pay at the time. Six months of my take home pay now probably also get me an absolute top end XC bike, although I can no longer afford to do that as I have things like mortgages to pay nowadays.
This has the same RRP as my ebike. We are being rinsed
£12.5k for an E-Bike, I think YOU'VE been rinsed ha ha.
TBH, single size, alu frame, cast alu wheels v what I can only assume is a thing of cutting edge carbon fibre framed dripping with flash eBike.
I'm sure a comparable ebike from another brand with a little less adjustment and a little more alu would cost half that.
This has the same RRP as my ebike. We are being rinsed
Yep, some people are if they pay that much - but I am genuinely surprised that sports motorbikes are so relatively reasonably priced.
This has the same RRP as my ebike. We are being rinsed
Yep, some people are if they pay that much - but I am genuinely surprised that sports motorbikes are so relatively reasonably priced.
and the profits of the companies that make them are in the billions
I already said it but I think it bears repeating. Making things light and strong is bloody expensive - it’s what I do for a job and people moan about our prices but I don’t see any other businesses in our field managing a similar combination for less money. And it’s a rubbish way to get rich.
I presume if you build a sports motorbike you don’t have to make sure it can withstand casing big doubles or hucks to flat, not does it have to be light enough to lift over a stile on your own…
With big wheels, recent tubeless tyres, low-end drive trains and brakes and midrange forks and shocks and modern geometry you can get a LOT of bike for not a lot, and it’ll be quicker and more capable than a very bling bike from 20 years ago.