£1250 for my most expensive bike purchase.
The most expensive bike I bought relative to earnings would have been the 1995 stumpjumper which cost £900 when I was a uni student. M1000 (discounted to £750) 4 years earlier a close second.
All other bikes range between £30 - £1100 and the replacement cycle is between 5 and 10 years.
I have probably only just come close to spending £8k on bikes and maintenance in 36 years of mountain biking/cycling 🤔
So, lose/lose for the manufacturer then? Careful, you might’ve stumbled across my point.
It almost sounds like we should be making a moral decision to pay RRP, even though we could buy the same product at over 50% off.
It's not far away from the argument that we should use our LBSs. I don't use any LBS (apart from one or two where I personally know the person who will be working on my bike) because I can't be sure that if I take my bike in for a brake bleed they won't use mineral oil on my Sram brakes because 'it's all brake fluid*'
The cycling industry in general has not been functioning efficiently for a long time. The last time I remember 50+% discounts not being the norm was in the last century. There is definitely scope to make it more efficient but as long as manufacturers are happy to 'design' their bike in the US/Europe but outsource all the manufacturing to the Far East then these inefficiencies are going to continue.
But cycling is nothing if not traditional and the tradition seem to be to try to guilt customers into paying over the odds because, 'it might not be here if you don't'.
*Source: this is what the 'mechanics' were doing in the workshop before I took over.
If I'd bought my bike new when the model was released in autumn 2020 (when it would have been full covid price)
Couldnt find a £ price but Enduromag has it in Euros.
€ 7,199 for a component spec slightly worse than mine
€ 8,399 for the above but with carbon wheels, so arguably better than mine.
I actually got it frame only in early 2022. £1000 off, last large in the country.
Build cost as it is now, probably around 4-5k.
Money spent on it total in 4 years, a bit more (theres another shock, set of brakes, wheelset, coil conversion on the fork) , still under 8k. But its gone out 2 or 3 times a week, plus one or two week long riding holidays a year.
Thats optimistically £10 a ride so far (maybe more like £15), ignoring any potential future resale value.
On the one hand, I can't see how a £8k bike from the big brands is anything other than profiting at RRP, there's even examples of bikes you could buy the frame only, and every part at RRP, and it still be cheaper than the model in the shop.
Worth it? It's a fundamentally pointless hobby that makes us happy. The value for money calculation is always infinitely bad, you're into the mathematical concept of not all infinites are equal. So if you can afford it, why not?
Had they bought a second hand Berlingo then the whole family could have posh bikes and they could probably go heli biking too.
You could buy two houses in the north of England with the change .......
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87496257#/?channel=RES_BUY
The highest list price of any of my six bikes was £2800 - for a genesis grapil 😂 which I bought as a frame only for £350, I could probably give it away as a full bike if I tried.
On the one hand, I can't see how a £8k bike from the big brands is anything other than profiting at RRP, there's even examples of bikes you could buy the frame only, and every part at RRP, and it still be cheaper than the model in the shop.
Worth it? It's a fundamentally pointless hobby that makes us happy. The value for money calculation is always infinitely bad, you're into the mathematical concept of not all infinites are equal. So if you can afford it, why not?
Had they bought a second hand Berlingo then the whole family could have posh bikes and they could probably go heli biking too.
You could buy two houses in the north of England with the change .......
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87496257#/?channel=RES_BUY
The position of the throne, possibly enhanced by the wide-angle lens makes of think of a MDMA come-down I had in the late 90s. I can imagine sitting there wondering what I was being dragged backwards into the wall.
Not for me that one.
I could be dead before you know it (as many acquaintances of my age (58) already are), and I can afford it, so why the hell not? No I didn’t pay full rrp for any of them. 3 were used and 2 were well discounted but they weren’t 50%. And the amount of first-world pleasure I’ve had out of all of them is fabulous. I ride my bikes almost every day of the year, so in rides per pound I figures im still not doing badly.
I'm at the point where my wife won't let me have any more. I'd like a carbon gravel bike with all the pannier and fork bag fixings - a do it all. My road bikes are vintage and can only run a 39x26 lowest gear, so can be hard work with a broken body if I get the hills wrong. The CX bike will go up walls, but it has nothing to carry bags - I've bodged a rack with P-clips before and handling was 'interesting' (the whole thing swayed and I ride all the time with heavy bags). I thought my request was fine, run it through "bike to work", the £3.5k max will cost me £2k. Gone is the idea of a carbon GRX Di2 2x12... and carbon wheels.
Nope you don't need another bike.
So I've gone out and bought a QR/Axel mount rack and some new gravel panniers to do some mini tours on the CX.
Nope and never. £8000 is a simply ludicrous amount of money to consider for a bike. I don’t think any of mine go much over £2.5k and event that is faintly ridiculously when I say it out loud.
Nope you don't need another bike
Sounds like you need another wife tbh.
Sod that actually, not another one, N-1 😉
I don’t but I can see why people do. There’s such vast disparity in disposable income across the UK alone that £8k to one person is more than they’ve saved in a lifetime whilst to another it’s a week or less’s surplus funds.
Despite the high prices of many bikes nowadays it seems a bad sector to run a profitable business in. Sales volumes are low, the number of competing models is vast, ebikes have added vastly more complication, and you’re selling something that could be abused beyond anything reasonable and then someone try to make a warranty claim, people still want bikes to be light but go larger than ever on them, and if they break when they’re not meant to it could cause serious injury or death. I’m out!
(And with the progress from the 27.5 age to 29 and mullet world, suspension and geometry has got so sorted that it’s hard to find a reason to buy a new bike if you got something good in the last 5-7 years.)
I don’t but I can see why people do. There’s such vast disparity in disposable income across the UK alone that £8k to one person is more than they’ve saved in a lifetime whilst to another it’s a week or less’s surplus funds.
It's swayed a lot by "price creep" too. The first time a brand released a £10,000 bike, everyone thought it was insane. Now, £10,000 is fairly normal pricing for a top end road bike so it's seen as a regular thing and everything else has crept up underneath that.
Same with car sizes. We're so used to seeing massive SUVs now that they just look normal but if you'd have introduced that in one fell swoop back in the 90's / 00's, there'd have been moves to require an LGV licence for it!
Despite the high prices of many bikes nowadays it seems a bad sector to run a profitable business in
Ironically, the pricing now requires finance (or a C2W scheme) and people are far more careful and thoughtful about buying anything high end. There are exceptions of course - I know a bike shop which sells top end kit to footballers on a semi-regular basis because to that clientele, £8000 is about 3 days wages.
The alternative is just that the shop lists it as £8000 but then sells it for £5999 and that DFS "permanent sale" model has also permeated the entire industry.
Ironically, the pricing now requires finance (or a C2W scheme) and people are far more careful and thoughtful about buying anything high end.
And that’s where I don’t think shops have caught up. The service I received from Leisure Lakes when spending £8,200 was laughable, although I would be just as peed off if I’d received the same service if I’d spent £500
Re pricing the largest I’d ever spent previously was £1,000. That in my time had got me a very nice Klein, and latterly a XC full sus bike
There are always however going to be people who can pay more and will.
Cars are a great example of this. There are ‘special editions’ at every price point from £30k to £5m. People who have the cash are happy to pay for that extra stripe on the bonnet
Own yes, two of them, paid full RRP no.
I just added up the current RRP for all the parts of my singlespeed hardtail - £4631
Some parts were at or near RRP, some were incredibly discounted, some were in between. All were bought through work (I ride to work every day, on one of my two MTBs). This build dates from 2022, with parts going back to 2013, new wheels in 2023 and only consumables since then (pads, grips, tyres, drivetrain).
It’s definitely a very expensive bike. It’s probably pretty decent value compared to other hobbies or sports or forms of exercise (not much else manages to be as fun AND as intense as ragging a gnarly singlespeed down your favourite local trails in all conditions.)
I bought a six and something thousand bike a few years back with my own money in one go, from a shop no less. I'm probably never going to sell it, so it's not 'deprecating' in the normal sense, it's still more than capable than i am, and still doesn't own me anything, I'm never going to need anything better. As a purchase, I still think its one of better ones I made over the years.
Most of my bikes (4) were bought through the C2W scheme but even then i couldn't bring myself to spend £8k on a bike - £6k with C2W was my psychological limit. i couldn't see spending another £2k or more would make much difference to my p**s poor performance or p**s poor skills.
I haven't used an LBS since a mechanic left some bits out because they didn't look right (a pair of seals on a 100 quid grease guard headset) this was only a few short weeks after he didn't press the bottom cup in on my warranty replacement frame. So my headset suddenly had a steerer that was 1/4" too long. That was the last of many. So, yeah, until LBS actually give a service worthy of what they charge for it, i won't be going back to any of them.I don't use any LBS (apart from one or two where I personally know the person who will be working on my bike) because I can't be sure that if I take my bike in for a brake bleed they won't use mineral oil on my Sram brakes because 'it's all brake fluid*'
I run/ran a workshop service from home for a few years while i was still involved with the local road scene. Some of the stuff that came through from the local (and not so local) shops was utterly terrifying. So i have a shit list, which unfortunately covers everything within 100km. Only person i take anything to is an ex WC/Pro DH privateer, who did all his own spannering for 10 years of regular forays into europe to race. He's usually booked out 2-3 months in advance though.
I'm more interested in what someone does with a bike than how much they've spaffed on it.
My 2020 Rocky Mountain Slayer C90 was a penny under £8k when I bought it in 2020, but with the invisframe it popped it over that limit. I purchased it from a veteran owned shop, and was happy to pay retail.
It was, at the time the second bike in my life i'd bought brand new. The one previous was a YT Capra, the base model.
I'd made do with secondhand for years, either due to budget limitations, or the time I had to ride didn't justify the cost.
When I left the army, after the years of compromise I decided I would buy myself a bike I really wanted, with no compromise.
Zero regrets, it's still in use today, one front triangle warranty and a few more upgrades here and there, with zero intention to part with it.
I'm more interested in what someone does with a bike than how much they've spaffed on it.
Probably not the thread for you then.
yes a road bike Colnago, big regret. I did get it on C2W and I paid for it up front to my employer as they were skint and didnt want it on their books. Still regret it. Much rather have a cheaper lower spec bike and just get on riding it. Plus less chance of being mugged for it.
Its is pretty though 😉
I have 2 ebikes over 8k each. Unlike a lot of others, I'm not bothered about the cost mainly because I am old enough to think "if not now, when?". Also I can't put a financial limit on my fun. I ride lots and still love it with a passion. I'd rather have my Whyte than 8 grand in the bank. All this is underpinned by the fact I can afford it, at any other point in my life it would have been inconceivable
I'm pretty sure if I added up all the bits my G1 might creep over that number. No regrets, it's given me mucho joy over the past 3.5 years, and I expect it to continue to do so for many years to come.
If money was more tight, I'd be happy with something much cheaper. Bikes are my only obsession though, so worth the highly irrational sums spent on them over the past three decades or so.
Great honesty on here...and yes speaks to a lot of the issues the indsutry is having
Nope and I never will. I buy almost everything used and am usually lucky at finding some good bargains. I can't see me ever having enough disposable income for a huge new bike purchase tbh, but even if I do I don't think I'd want to spend above £2.5-3k on a bike. I do sometimes look at ebikes and think that'd be nice, but can't justify the cost and don't want to put it on finance anyway.
I prefer to build up a bike from used parts so I can carefully select where I want to put more money into and where I can cheap out a bit more. In the past this has worked out pretty well for me, but the used market nowadays doesn't seem to have so many bargains around.
The used market is VERY much a buyers market at the moment. Way more so than in past years.
Over the years I may have spent £8k on bikes in total but I'm not good enough to justify a single bike that cost £8k. And I'm not sure where the value is in an £8k bike. It's genuinely baffling to me.
Back in the days when I could spend frivolously I did drop £3k on an at-the-time superbike. Equivalent now would be knocking on the door of £10k. I know inflation is a thing but £3k cash twenty years ago hasn't inflated itself to £10k now.
The used market is VERY much a buyers market at the moment. Way more so than in past years.
I still can't seem to see as many good used bargains as I used to. For ages I've wanted to source an older 27.5 frame to build into a cheap "slopeduro" bike but haven't seen anything worthwhile at a good price!
speaks to a lot of the issues the indsutry is having
Self induced, so I have little sympathy. If you have to knock 50% off the price of your bikes to sell them to enough customers then you missed the market completely.
But then small(er than, say, Santa Cruz/PON) who haven’t over supplied struggle to be able to sell their bikes, not because they are making huge margins but simply because they aren’t matching the 30-50% off RRP, all thanks to the ‘I won’t/you shouldn’t pay RRP’ crowd? How’s that their fault?
Same with LBS vs CRC\wiggle megaselloff, lauded by so many on here, that will have been a kicking through no fault of the LBS?
I don’t know what the solution is, just ranting really, it just irks me that folk brag about how little they can get away with supporting an industry that fuels my passion.
I don’t know what the solution is, just ranting really, it just irks me that folk brag about how little they can get away with supporting an industry that fuels my passion.
Why does any of this need a "solution" what you´re describing is good old fashioned captalism, the ebbs and flows of filthy money, the market decides and even if the outcome is the stupidest, least beneficial for all that´s just how it has to be 😉
I don´t think punters deserve to be criticised for jumping on once in a decade bargains as an over-extended business implodes, or for holding onto the purse strings in the midst of a cost of living crisis, just because someone else decided to take a gamble by starting a boutique bike brand that inherently doesn´t offer "Value for Money"...
It isn’t the over extended businesses that are losing the most though. It’s the guys that are charging for the cost of materials plus their hourly rate and rent on their shop, that’s what annoys me I suppose, those that have made a ton of money that are now pulling the drawbridge up on any new starts/small operations.
RIP 18bikes frame production as a recent example.
If you have to knock 50% off the price of your bikes to sell them to enough customers then you missed the market completely.
The bike industry has been like that for years though.
Specialized / Trek release their latest & greatest superbike at £12,000, Shimano release their latest Dura-Ace at £4000... Within a few months, they're on "special offer" at 25 - 40% off. Rapha tried to move away from the constant discounting to the extent that they even closed their shops around Black Friday but then a year or so later they were sucked back into it from the sheer competition everywhere else, the race to the bottom for biggest discounts.
Literally the only parts of the bike industry that are doing OK are quality e-bikes and the absolute bargain basement end. Everything else exists by virtue of a constant price war. Grey imports, end-of-line stock reductions, a near constant flow of Shiny New Kit (which then finds itself in the same boat of being discounted 4 months down the line)...
Rapha tried to move away from the constant discounting to the extent that they even closed their shops around Black Friday but then a year or so later they were sucked back into it from the sheer competition everywhere else, the race to the bottom for biggest discounts.
Great example. Just how big is the market for £300 cycling jackets and £200 jerseys? If you have to sell them at half that then you cocked up your market research - or you've made sufficient profit off the wealthier customers such that you can afford to sell the rest off at a much reduced margin.
or you've made sufficient profit off the wealthier customers such that you can afford to sell the rest off at a much reduced margin.
Rapha haven't made a profit in about 7 years. Quite the opposite.
Some of that is down to restructuring and the way "debt" and repayments are calculated, the actual figures aren't quite as dire as they look at first glance but it's not a bed of roses for them by any means.
Take a look at some boutique TT / Tri bikes. You don't get wheels, bars, cranks, or even a razor blade for a saddle.
Literally the only parts of the bike industry that are doing OK are quality e-bikes and the absolute bargain basement end. Everything else exists by virtue of a constant price war.
I don't wish to be the bearer of bad news, but the high end eMTB market is just about to get blown open now that they all have access to the Avinox motors (and the new M2 motor dropping soon), and the recognition from one senior brand designer I was chatting to recently that high end eMTB's have "at most" an 18 month product life cycle these days... Said brand has also already shelved it's less than 1yr old Bosch CX powered bike!
Rapha haven't made a profit in about 7 years. Quite the opposite.
It's honestly really sad the public perception of the bike trade... I understand why of course... NOBODY in their right mind can justify a £200 jersey, no matter how good it is. The reality is that of course, there is always a handful of people for whom price never matters and simply having the best, most exclusive product is all that is important... That probably accounts for 10-20% of the super high end product sales... The remaining 80%+ gets sold at varying degrees of discount... Some of it still profitable, much of it not... And with ever eroding margins on bikes in particular, we have got to a point where your typical bike shop has mere months to sell a bike at any kind of profit margin at all, before it is forced to sell it at a loss or not to sell it at all...
Most bike shops and bike brands haven't made a profit since before COVID (yes, really!)... I know shops that are turning over £2m a year, and outwardly seen as success stories, yet their owners are just busy fools, making zero profit and not even able to pay themselves a living wage at the very least! Brand owners who've remortgaged their houses merely to prolong their beloved brands impending death... Then we have the very web forum that we're talking on now that has been going for 25yrs now, yet last year had to crowdfund to stay alive!
Yet every single customer that isn't directly involved in the bike trade, just sees the high rrp's and assumes that everyone is making a killing and that it's all "profit, profit, profit" in the bike trade once again... Still not understanding why their beloved Wiggle/CRC went bust a couple of years ago, itself not having returned any kind of dividend to its shareholders for 15yrs or more by that point... And not forgetting that even Trek & Specialized, the 2 industry titans, are currently propped up by 100's of millions of borrowed $'s that are going to need to be paid back at some point too... And that's just the tip of the iceberg!
There is a very old saying that has never run truer than in the bike trade... "Turnover for vanity, profit for sanity"... And sadly, it's a VERY vain trade that I've found myself spending most of my working life in!
It isn’t the over extended businesses that are losing the most though. It’s the guys that are charging for the cost of materials plus their hourly rate and rent on their shop, that’s what annoys me I suppose, those that have made a ton of money that are now pulling the drawbridge up on any new starts/small operations.
Well that´s true in any sphere of industry, I don´t get why you think bicycle related businesses should be any different from the rest of the world.
Thin margins on big turnovers, acquisitions to help create the illusion of profits or "growth" flagship products to draw attention, sold off at cost (or below) six months after launch to help the hype train keep going for the next itteration, these are all familiar behaviours of large commercial businesses.
The big boys will survive, the small fry might if they´re lucky, but none of them are running charities, and their fates are not the fault of the customers.
Yet every single customer that isn't directly involved in the bike trade, just sees the high rrp's and assumes that everyone is making a killing and that it's all "profit, profit, profit" in the bike trade once again... Still not understanding why their beloved Wiggle/CRC went bust a couple of years ago, itself not having returned any kind of dividend to its shareholders for 15yrs or more by that point... And not forgetting that even Trek & Specialized, the 2 industry titans, are currently propped up by 100's of millions of borrowed $'s that are going to need to be paid back at some point too... And that's just the tip of the iceberg!
What the punters see is prices that they can either afford or they can´t, why would they care about the business models behind those prices? I´d contend that most people don´t have any real opinion about the people working in the bicycle industry, I very much doubt they assume some sort malevolent, price gouging, barons of industry are sat around plotting world domination off the vast profits from of a fancy pair of shorts or a few bike frames.
We all undersood why Chiggle went bust, they had created an unsustainable model, dominating a market by cutting their own throats, and then they got bought out to be used as a debt vessel by someone with fewer scruples. Pardon me if I scored a cheap cassette or stem during the ensuing carnage.
Do you really want the punters to care for the plight of the handful of people that work in the cycle industry, or do you just want them to cough up the asking prices without any questions? Most customers have their own financial pressures too, and a phone in their pocket that lets them google all the alternatives, the age of just paying what the LBS asks are long gone, sorry. As harsh as it might sound, businesses fail every day all over the world and the root cause is seldom a lack of empathy from potential customers...
If the industry as a whole is finding every current business model is failing then perhaps, as you suggest, a bigger reset is coming, That´s not necessarily a bad thing (IMO). Just "free markets" doing their thing...
My most expensive bike was £2.9k and that was discounted by about £1k. This was 8 years ago and I am a bit poorer now. I'd pay £8k if I could afford it and it was my dream build.
There are bikes that cost less than £8000?
What are they made of, cardboard?
Hmmm 8 grand seems a lot for a push bike (less so for a top spec ebike I suppose) considering the quite shoddy quality across bike and component manufactures. I know it has improved but how many of us have had defective frames and components over the years, not to mention components that weren't fit for purpose!
The safety (required across various jurisdictions) and industry standards of the automotive industry are more onerous and expensive. Quality for the most part is much higher across the board.
Although bikes cost more than there automotive counterparts due to lower volume. They are produced to lower standards/tolerances, are less complex/advanced, use less materials and are subjected to less expensive R&D, testing and QA.
RRP for the vast majority of bikes just doesn't seem good value. Hence most people don't and won't pay it.
Current bikes - Cotic Soul gen 5 & Rocket Gen 4 - both at full RRP but with slightly less shiny kit so that I could afford them. Newest bike a Saracen Ariel 30 Pro - paid £2,500 discounted from £4000 - the only thing I want to change on it is a slightly longer dropper post. It is an absolute bargain.
My wife's current bike had an RRP of £5,100 - she paid just over £2,000 as it was a gen 3 version of the bike & had been sat in a storage facility somewhere so the importer was keen to move it on & the bike shop sold it to her at cost as they owed her a favour for some coaching work she'd done for them.
Just how big is the market for £300 cycling jackets and £200 jerseys? If you have to sell them at half that then you cocked up your market research - or you've made sufficient profit off the wealthier customers such that you can afford to sell the rest off at a much reduced margin.
But this is entirely how (especially clothing) it works You price your required profit margin at the point of maximum sales, which is probably going to be a "x" discount calculated for your brand. Anyone who buys your jacket at max retail, well great, extra profit for you, but anyone who thinks that a sale price for any clothing brand is losing money is also well off the mark.
Still not understanding why their beloved Wiggle/CRC went bust a couple of years ago
Because the parent company lost it's ability to raise finance.
Anyone who buys your jacket at max retail, well great, extra profit for you, but anyone who thinks that a sale price for any clothing brand is losing money is also well off the mark.
Yep. It's just that Rapha seemed to have believed their own hype 😂
Yep. It's just that Rapha seemed to have believed their own hype
this year excepted, they've more or less routinely made money on clothing sales. Their EBITDA is actually pretty strong. The reason they have a gigantic loss each year is mostly the $10M amortization from when they were sold to RZC holdings in 2017
I just priced up to directly replace my Geometron, it comes to £8300.
I think I brushed up against the top end of the MTB wealth spectrum yesterday.
Bit of a Rabble I would guess mostly late 40s to mid 50s, mostly on what I think were Santa Cruz E-MTBs.
while I stopped and waited for one of them to clear a nadgery climb that I was going down got chatting to one of them, mostly about the crap weather. Thing I noticed was He wasn’t really engaged in the conversation, his eyes were darting about all over me and my Povo-spec Rigid bike clearly trying to place brands (or lack thereof) and Identify the ancient, logo free, rattle-can painted Commencal I was sat on.
I think it cuts both ways, at least some of the new-golfers are achingly aware that they don’t know, what they don’t know and that while they’ve paid to play, they don’t really have any history with MTBing.
I would feel sorry for them if they weren’t the root of half our socio-economic problems 😉
Perhaps if you’d offered him one of your chips, from your shoulder, he’d have been more interested in talking to you?
Perhaps if you’d offered him one of your chips, from your shoulder, he’d have been more interested in talking to you?
Meh, it’s the reality of living in this country, you can claim not to see class, wealth, greed or envy but these are cornerstones of our society, they have been for a while. this thread illustrates it nicely IMO…
I was friendly and affable, as an interaction it went fine, He could just smell the poor on me and wasn’t really able to hide it, you can accuse me of being judgmental but I was clearly being judged the other way.
It’s my own fault I’m sure, I had strayed over the border into Oxfordshire, lucky not to get horse-whipped really…
Thing I noticed was He wasn’t really engaged in the conversation, his eyes were darting about all over me and my Povo-spec Rigid bike clearly trying to place brands (or lack thereof) and Identify the ancient, logo free, rattle-can painted Commencal I was sat on.
I had something similar happen waiting on a railway station post-ride yesterday. Apropos of nothing a gravel biker came up and started banging on about their wireless shifting, illustrating their thoughts on the minutiae of frame design by showing me phone pictures of their bikes; all the while clearly trying to figure out my mud covered monstercross lash-up. Very odd, probably on the spectrum somewhere. Thing is, I like tinkering with and riding bikes but they're just a tool; I don't really give a shit about this stuff. I remained polite and non-committal - and made damned sure I was in a different carriage when the train came in!
I can't answer the question as I don't know what my bikes are worth or were worth when new (24 Tallboy CC and 23 Revel Rascal).
All I know is that I bought the frames very lightly used for very little money and put my favourite bits on them. I guess I could sell the lot for around £5k but I also guess that the RRPs if they had been specced like they are now wouldn't be far off £8k each.
Which goes to show the irrelevance of RRPs but also the (slightly lower) irrelevance of discounted RRPs.
Lightly used frames and self build is where the value is for me which is probably not relevant to the original question as all I did is use letters to form words to form sentences as I was bored waiting for my car to be MOTed.
Didn't have anything to say on the thread until today when someone lent me a Swiss Forbidden Enduro bike to try which was 10 000e. Frame only costs more than my carbon 17.5 Zesty AM which is my point of comparison. It was the first time I've ridden a Mullet, that experience was positive. The suspension was properly plush, the brakes good. In fact everything apart from the jumping gears worked very well, and marginally better than the Zesty. A bit weighty mind riding it back up the hill. Verdict: all that technology and sophistication does what it's designed to and it certainly made for a happy and proud owner.
I ride my bikes lots and lots and lots. I like owning nice bikes. I like owning stuff that works well and lasts a long time. I own a couple of bikes that would probably have RRPs in the region of £8k. They're exactly what I want with nice kit on them (XTR drivetrains, DT wheels, Formula brakes, Rockshox Ultimate suspension etc).
BUT
I'm not a psychopath. No bike is worth that much to me. It's a bicycle. I've never paid more than £2k for a bike. If I even thought about it I'd want to be sectioned. I buy second hand, through bike to work, build from the frame up and buy bargains when they're what I want.
My head works pretty much like this.
I also do think there’s also a value of having a bike that you enjoy and rides lots that makes sense in the fitness/health sense rather than the price so if riding a more expensive bike motivates you to do so then it’s better value to you than something cheaper but not used.
My outlay limit for a bike is probably €2-3k but tbh I’m still happy with my 3T exploro which has got to be going on over 7 years old and my scalpel that was 1/2 rrp.
Im not busting a gut to replace either in a hurry and tbh as much I like the idea of an electric bike, I can literally get a second hand rieju 125 marathon pro for under €3k (and only 3k km on the clock) which although yep there are other yearly costs my view is that if I’m not going to bother pedalling may as well have something with real bang per buck 🙂
I spent much more than £8000 on a custom titanium and carbon Seven Cycles road bike. It was just after my dad died, we’d had a difficult relationship and it was 100% a crutch to get me out and back on the bike again. That was in 2021 and it totally worked. Did I need to spend that much on a bicycle? Absolutely not, did the fact that I had make me go out and ride it more? I’m not sure, but I definitely told myself I had to ride it more because I had.
I'm more interested in what someone does with a bike than how much they've spaffed on it.Most of mine have been absolutely ground into tiny pieces doing several thousand miles each per season. The road bikes got even more (ab)use.
Specialized / Trek release their latest & greatest superbike at £12,000, Shimano release their latest Dura-Ace at £4000... Within a few months, they're on "special offer" at 25 - 40% off.TBH, the volumes of those actual halo bikes is so small it doesn't really impact the bottom line of the manufacturer, it's the shops that get shafted unless they have very good deals with the wholesaler/importer!
I dunno how it stacks up with all manufacturers, but the last big one i dealt with was making their halo bike (top end carbon inc wheels, Boutique built, top end SRAM wireless, grand plus for forks) at a rate of about 1 per 2000 compared to the best selling version of that model (Carbon/SLX level). And something like 1 in 8-9000 to all versions of the model name (starting at about 12-1400 quid, topping out at £13499 IIRC).
Four years ago today we travelled up to Fort William to buy a very little used S Works Turbo Levo for less than half price. Double what I'd ever paid for a bike new or used. Spent the weekend riding the trails and have had a big grin ever since.
Probably the best deal I have had on a bike with smiles for miles
