[Closed] How Much???!?!!!

people who spent £1300 before the recession on a set of suspension forks for a push bike are less likely to have adjusted their spending priorities as a result of the recession as other groups of consumers.

Stick some cheap forks on your Intense 951 and then tell me how it rides and whether they £500 you saved was worthwhile.

I agree, it's a lot of money for some metal, but it's not just the metal you're paying for is it? (r&d, warranty etc). It's also a limited market to recover r&d costs in. The technology in DH doesn't flow down as well into other disciplines and price categories, so it probably takes quite a few sales at a high price to actually make any real money back on the r&d etc.

Also, GBP is so weak against JPY and USD at the moment that we're paying a premium to import.

[b][i]Suspension forks in overpriced shocker![/i][/b]

I can't help feeling that the short travel/hardtail movement in DH is a positive for just this reason. Hardtails can be much cheaper for any given quality level. Performance may not be as high, but it provides a better access point for most people.

Aye but alot of the folk spending that are talked into it by the mags.....very few of em need em ....

Marketing shocker.....

I've got a new pair of Fox 40 RC2 FIT forks on my DH bike, and the performance is simply jaw dropping. Easily worth £1200 of my money.

My riding will never be good enough to take them anywhere near their limits of course, but every time I ride down a hill I'm amazed just how good they are.

If you're going to buy a £2.5K frame, you're not going to hang £300 forks off it are you?

Aye but alot of the folk spending that are talked into it by the mags

I didn't know "mags" forced people to get money out of the bank, go into there LBS and buy downhill forks 😉

If they tell you stuff is crap .....you will buy better stuff ......

Sorry but i got out the downhill game because it was going the way of timetrialing- fashion orientated and pumping good money after bad money in the quest of 3 places from 50th to 47th place on a 5k bike.....

Sorry but i got out the downhill game because it was going the way of timetrialing- fashion orientated and pumping good money after bad money in the quest of 3 places from 50th to 47th place on a 5k bike.....

I see, maybe you just needed to ride more? 😉

If you're going to buy a £2.5K frame, you're not going to hang £300 forks off it are you?

I question the need for a £2.5K frame in the first place. If you can afford it, then that's great, but I would rather our sport/hobby/culture/whatever stayed closer to cheaper SoCal hippy roots. That's just me though.

Aye based on that statement i musta been shite on my bike ....... I just couldnt cut it ...... So i gave up ....

you tried entering a downhill race these days ? couldnt commit to entering a race 6 months in advance as they would fill up in 2 hrs .....

that is indeed just you. lookin round this ere website its not just the gravity assisted lot that are into splashing the cash is it?

Aye based on that statement i musta been shite on my bike ....... I just couldnt cut it ...... So i gave up ....

you tried entering a downhill race these days ? couldnt commit to entering a race 6 months in advance as they would fill up in 2 hrs .....

I feel you pain 😀

trail rat? Ride more? If he did that he'd not sleep.

Forks have gone funny in terms of pricing but people keep paying it. I refuse to buy new forks these days. There's no point paying over £400 for any fork- I think the most expensive fork I've bought in the last 2 years was a set of Lyrics I got for £230.

DH is sadly pretty inaccesible these days. Most people can't afford to do it, and it's what the kids think is coolest and want to do most. I can't do DH races because even they cost extortionate amounts of money. But most people seem to find it so they'll keep being that much.

I certainly try to keep a lid on my expenditure. What I [i]could[/i] theoretically spend and what I'm willing to spend are quite a long way apart. 🙂

funniest thing for DH for me is that its not a one off. a large proportion of the field buys a new bike EACH SEASON. so if the mags say the V10 is 'the one' then you'll see 50 of em. then next year maybe only 10 V10's and 50 more trek DH bikes. and full race kit. and D3 lids. and so on...

mental. i have 1 DH bike that i blagged when the last one i blagged snapped. then if anything on it breaks it gets replaced. thats it.

If you're going to buy a £2.5K frame, you're not going to hang £300 forks off it are you?

Disagree with this thread a bit, for £1300 you are getting a shed lot of technology compared to the similarly priced rockshox judy dh forks from 10yrs ago that had 5" of travel and were elastomer sprung. I believe we had been spoilt for a while with such a strong pound, leading to the terrible second hand value of bicycle parts now, although there may be a mark up in components, materials etc the amount of time designing,testing,distributing and money pumped into the sport from the big manufacturers than in previous days more than makes up for it I recon.

I just feel forks in general have gone silly money these days, I really dont see how a pair of forks that I could have bought for 250 a few years ago can now be worth 500 odd. I understand the exchange rate issue but it strikes me we are all being had for a ride, especially when you open up a set - there not exactly made of precious metals its mostly delrin. I too am refusing to pay anything like full price for forks at the moment.

dunno. at the time the elastomer oil damping was still cutting edge technology. im sure if they could have made these forks then then they would have, and not that they were ripping us off with crap...

a bloody disgusting amount of money for a few castings a couple of tubes and some oil…

don't tell us about it then go make something better and show 'em how it's done!

ah. thought not.

benjamins11 - Member

I just feel forks in general have gone silly money these days, I really dont see how a pair of forks that I could have bought for 250 a few years ago can now be worth 500 odd. I understand the exchange rate issue but it strikes me we are all being had for a ride, especially when you open up a set - there not exactly made of precious metals its mostly delrin. I too am refusing to pay anything like full price for forks at the moment.

Try taking a look inside a modern fork or shock damper (see below). Also, as above, the cost of producing the fork is just one aspect of the price (r&d, advertising, holding spares, running warranty departments etc etc)

The real rip-off IMHO is chainrings, HT2 BBs and other wear and tear bits.

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
from [url= http://www.tamedearth.com/tag/float/ ]here[/url]

I dont mean that many years ago, i mean like 3 years ago. My current revs where around 280 quid from crc they are over 500 now. Admittedly the new forks are a little better, but they cant cost much more to produce. I just am not sure the exchange rate thing adequately explains the rise in price, and I think that we are all sops for rolling over and just accepting that the prices have gone through the roof.

If only there was a UK fork manufacturer that wasnt affected by such things. oh no wait, there was.

I have had a look inside a modern pair of forks - my 2007 revs. They are not massively complicated. Maybe in the last 3 years forks have become mega complicated inside - like twice as complicated and therefore the price rise is justified.

Funny thing is cars, computers, washing machines etc have got more complicated over the last few years but haven't really increased in price so I'm not sure the complexity argument really holds water.

overall i think you;re right. manitou released a fork that was 2k. some people bought it. RS released forks for 1k. loads of people bought them. i guess they looked at the market and thought they'd still sell at 1.5k. and they are doing...

I don't know what amazes me most - the cheapest at £925 or the fact it was a White Bros 😯

If someone really [b][i]needs[/i][/b] that level of performance or can justify spending that level of money then good luck to them. I'm stunned that so many appear to be able to afford it.

I would be willing to bet that the top boys would still be at the top whether they were riding the very latest megabucks 'must have' fork or a 5 year old 'dinosaur'.

I have had a look inside a modern pair of forks - my 2007 revs. They are not massively complicated. Maybe in the last 3 years forks have become mega complicated inside - like twice as complicated and therefore the price rise is justified.

Even the relatively simple MoCo damper is more complex than you're letting on. But anyway, our currency has plummeted over the last few years.

I dont mean that many years ago, i mean like 3 years ago. My current revs where around 280 quid from crc they are over 500 now.

2007 revs = 130mm travel, Moco damper amirite? You can get those for £274.99 here : http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/marzocchi-and-rockshox-suspension-forks/rockshox-suspension-forks/rockshox-fork-sale.html so in fact they are now cheaper.

It's true that MSRPs do seem to have been on the increase, but at the same time (as evidenced by Retro83's link) discounting has been on the rise aswell

actually this pisses me off slightly as you can't judge the market effectively if the MSRP is twice what's being charged on the street. The cynic in me says this is about OEM sales so people can justify that bike purchase with the feeling that "there's a 700 quid pair of forks on it" when there's not

street level prices I'm 100% convinced that you get more bang for your buck today on a fork than you did 5, 10 or 15 years ago. I once paid 500 for a pair of Pace RC35s. 35mm of undamped elastomer goodness hmmmmm.....

er yeah thats as maybe but they are three years out of date. I wouldn't expect to pay full price for a car that has sat on a forecourt for three years would I?

Do you work in suspension forks? You seem very defensive about the prices!!

fair point. However I have bought '10 32 TALAS and SID teams this year at 50% off. Go looking, there's just no need to pay near MSRP for an aftermarket fork today, even a current one

and lol on the sus company comment! to be clear I don't work for a suspension company. I do think MSRPs are silly at the moment but I also think they're set to be discounted. Look around other industries, you find stuff for pre-order already discounted, that's just bloody bonkers. It irritates me because I have to research the street price of something before making a relative purchasing decision, given that teh MSRP seems in no way related to what I will be expected to pay for it.

That said, I appreciate how far suspension has come and how bloody awful it was in the early days, not to mention how painful it was when all my riding was fully rigid

plus I'm 40 with a decent disposable income

its probably true - there are alot of bargains to be had - which possibly renders the argument obsolete, I do however feel that rrp's these days seem over and above what the forks are worth. I guess that could be seen as a reason for the increased discounting??

benjamins11 - Member

er yeah thats as maybe but they are three years out of date. I wouldn't expect to pay full price for a car that has sat on a forecourt for three years would I?

Do you work in suspension forks? You seem very defensive about the prices!!

No, they're new forks though - so arguably better for less cash as they have more travel, powerbulge bushings etc and I didn't even notice that Merlin are doing an extra 10% off so they're actually only £250 ...

Anyhow I didn#t mean to come across defensive about the pricing of forks, I just think you're missing the point that in 2007 it was $2=£1 now it's more like $1.48=£1

Actually though I think they're pretty good value compared to wear & tear items like chainrings, BBs, brake pads etc. I mean come on, £30 for a middle chainring!? WTF

Yes the exchange rate has changed alot - but I think the prices have increased over and above that - maybe I'm wrong but I keep looking at quoted fork prices for mid range forks at over 500 and I just dont think that equates to good value for money.

Your right tho 30 quid for a chainring is silly money!

tis true this sport of ours is getting stupidly and unjustifiably expensive, kit wise...the way i get round this is to buy frames off ebay for 50-65% RRP that are in good nick and get new forks from discount retailers like merlin CRC etc, means I can build a pair of £3k ( new price ) rigs (currently a bullit and a superlight) for about £1k a piece. the need for newer shiner every year doesnt faze me.

I have to agree with the point regarding overpriced DH forks, i'm sure they are fantastic but the guys really seeing the differences are the pro's trying to shave miliseconds off their times, and their forks are free and full of stuff the punter ont he street won't see for two to three years.

Trouble with DH is that to get a half descent bike you're really talking between 3-5k

I toyed with the idea of getting back into DH but found out pretty quick that its 5k for this:

[img] [/img]

or this

[img] [/img]

for me (and i speak only of me) that's a bit of a no-brainer in my book (i also understand that my prices may be a little off but i'm just trying to make a point, not be 100% bulletproof with my research)

It’s not that I’ve really left DH behind, I’ve merely tried to keep my hand in (on an HT now, and not really racing) while buying a house and spending out on the important family type things that need covering… bikes in general get left behind…

The “technology” argument holds little weight with me, slidey springy tubes ain’t rocket science and you’re telling me there’s several hundred pounds worth of difference in COGs between the different versions of the Boxxer? common chassis plenty of common components, to be honest I wouldn’t be shocked if the “team cost more to make than the WC

I think the problem DH is going to suffer from sooner or later is a decline in the Masters and older Cat’s; you hit 30 and other things start to encroach on available time and finances for bikes, factor in the costs, the silly big costs of kit and entries and well it starts to seem like a rich mugs game... But then it is quite fun too…

Crikey Boba Fatt that certainly puts things into perspective!

🙂

Like any sport the more serious you are about it the more money it costs. there are many things that effect cost for starters Taiwan isn't as cheap as it used to be, they work in $ and the exchange rate hasn't been too good either etc, etc. Yes forks are expensive but if you had to replace a set of forks on you Yamaha R1 that would make your eyes water too yet they are pretty much the same inside just a bit more of it.

And if you think DH is too expensive look what Madison are doing for next year.

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/exclusivesaracen-myst-dh.html

If this bike comes to market at the £2k price mark it will be great value and if it gets the same kind of reviews that the Saracen Aerial is getting in this months mags I'd buy one.

aye it comes to market for 2k but not with that spec.

probably not but at 2k it gives you a good platform to work from and you can upgrade when you can afford it. you also need to remember that Madison are the UK importers for Shimano so the spec won't be that bad.

to get a half decent bike you have to spend 3-5k

well i disagree if you are willing to go 2nd hand or even just last years models in the sale you can build up a decent bike for anything from 500quid to a grand and a half

part of the problem is most bike companies only ahve 1 or 2 dh bikes in their line up and loads of xc/trail bikes
it is a pain to try and find decent dh riding venues in the uk, you definately need a car
lift passes arent cheap, or uplift days

all these factors mean that they dont sell many dh forks so prices will be higher than for rebas!

saying that they all get discounted in the sales

and quite frankly having the latest wonder bike is alla bit of a con
tracey mosely has been no faster on her hi-tech trek than her 6yr old designed kona

likewise gee was only a fraction of a second down on his plain old ally commencal than minaars carbon v10 at maribor

and along with the saracen brant is hoping to get these to market at a reasonable price......
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/nukeproof-dh-bike-proto-2010.html

whuile im at it some interesting stuff about dh bike weighst on dirt.....
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/dirttv-world-cup-bike-weighin.html

doesnt mean thy will give the shimano away though

i agreee kimbers

How come in the midst of a Global recession fork manufacturers seem to think they can so comprehensively take the piss?

Its at times like this that it pays to put your prices up. The people who have got no money wouldn't be able to buy your products even if you discounted them. The people with the money aren't going to be put off by the higher prices.

But anyway, our currency has plummeted over the last few years.