[Closed] Now that's just stupid!

can you manufacture them yourself?

I bl**dy wish! I recon I'd be onto a winner. The overheads can't be THAT much.

yeah! it's not like they've got to cover the costs of having new tooling made

OK maybe not, but Shimano HAVE the tool made 100 times over. You can't tell me it cost the best part of £17 to ship a pair o cleats here from Japan.

Was going to suggest that the cost of Shimano cleats would be an incentive to use Time ATAC pedals... but, having just checked, they are now a similar price - sign of the times?

B*stards eh! Should be giving them away, these people running a business...

Wellgo make shimano compatible cleats for a lot less

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/wellgo%20cleats?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=wellgo+cleats&_naf=1

about £8

maybe they have the tooling made 100 times over,
but how many cleats do they get out of the stamps?, and then how can they can justify such an extortionate price

I'm not saying they are 'B*stards' I just can't see where that price comes from.

Raw Materials = X
Manufacture = Y
Shipping & Distribution = Z

How can X+Y+Z=£17?

I have no idea what these cost would be - perhaps someone can enlighten me?

oh those Wellgo one look like a much better price. Has anyone ever used them?

i know steel prices have risen and fuel costs etc, but not that much!!

I'd be more tempted to buy a set of M520 pedals (with cleats) from SJS for £18.99 rather then pay £17 for just the cleats.

You could machine them from a block of steel worth about 50p, but you'd need a CNC machine worth about 20,000 plus replacement bits. Plus someone to program it, plus the R&D behind making it, plus it probably pays off some of the margin lost on other items that are normally expensive to make (nice shimano SPD shoes with carbon soles that might otherwise be more pricey?).

coffeeking

think you'll find they're either forged or stamped out.
cheaper tooling and only really need a big press

Its a bit like printer cartridges - how mad is it when its cheaper to buy a complete printer with the cartridges than replace the cartridges?
You should just use Time ATAC anyway as their cleats last for years.

No, that's taking the piss. Considering how many cleats are made eah year, Shimano could probbly sell them for a fiver a pair, and still make a healthy profit. As pointed out; how can they sell pairs of pedals + cleats, for only a few quid more?

I'm boycotting any Shimano stuff, until they stop taking the piss. They're using this whole recession thing, to boost their profits, not to try and retain their sales margins. Shysters. How much has the Yen grown against the Pound? How much have cleats gone up by? Bastards.

Come one, let's all boycott Shimano! Show them we won't be held to ransom!

This is what happens, when there's no competition. Campagnolo could be coining it in, if they weren't so bloody snobby, and lowered themselves to make mountain bike bits.

Bastards. They're all bastards.

go rudeboy!! 😀

Nice one Rudeboy.

Well I gonna buy the Wellgo ones...

Well, Campagnolo did make mtb stuff, but it was
a) beautiful (with a price to match)
b) rubbish

LOL!

I've just had a quick google, and discovered that the Pound/Yen ratio over the last year would reveal why a pair of cleats has gone up from about £12 to £18. Because the Pound has dropped by a proportional amount against the Yen. So, fair enough, really.

But they're still all bastards!

i'm boycotting Campag as well, for being snobby mtb hating bastards.

In fact, I'm boycotting everyone, giving up cycling all together, and taking up another sport instead. Mountain biking is a bastard.

Ha! They'll be sorry! Yeah, wait until their business dries up, 'cos I'm not buying their stuff any more! Thattull teach 'em!

This is one of the ways that Japanese business works. Make the products cheap - (loss leader) Lock you into their system then makes spares and accessories expensive to recoup the profits. The cleats will cost them pennies to make and distribute.

I have four bikes, of which one has a Shimano rear hub, which it came with, and SPuDs, which I've had for years. It came with 105 road and Deore, which has been stripped off to make it a road ss. Two ofl my other bikes have SRAM drive trains and the last is an ss. Gave up on Shimano six years ago, and nothing apart from Saint, makes me want to go back.
Rudeboy, I like the cut of your jib, sir. 😀

Cost to you £17.99 consists of:

typically something like (this is not unique to bike bits)-

VAT £ 2.35
Shipping/postage £ 2.00 (maybe a bit more a bit less depending on how its sent)
Margin for retailer £ 4.00 (ish)
Margin for UK 'master' distributor £ 4.00 (ish)
Import duty £ 0.50 (depending where it came from etc)
Cost of finished goods from 'manufacturer' £ 5.00 ish
From that fiver they have to fund tooling, R&D, marketing, packaging the product, getting the product made etc.

You can always sit down with a few files, an electric drill, and a lump of steel plate. After about 4-5 hours work you should have it about right.

Flats FTW!
Sorry...couldn't resist

I've just bought some, a little cheaper than that but not much. I reckon though that by weight they are great value, it wouldn't surprise me if some people on here had frames that weigh less. So if someone does want to start making them can we have a Ti option.

You could always borrow a pair of new cleats and make your own from them by using them as patterns for casting.

Assuming you've got casting sand, two moulds to hold the cope & drag, a crucible of some sort and a method of heating the raw material to melting point. Tools for handling the red hot crucible of moltem metal, somewhere safe to do this and all the appropriate safety gear (leather apron, gloves, etc) adequate place with ventilation to do the casting, tools to finish the casting once it's cooled.

...and not to mention the correct metal - too soft & it'll wear away in no time, too hard & it'll wear the pedals away in no time.

Simple

Rudeboy - I actually agree with you!

TJ I don't think you have to be Japanese to adopt that business model.

MrSparkle - Member

Rudeboy - I actually agree with you!

Uh-oh. We've got one ear. Nut-job.... 😯

Truth is, no-one has had the balls to challenge Shimano peopply. Campag, probbly the best placed manufacturer of bike bits, jolly well have not bothered to consider the MTB market. More fool them. Silly buggers.

SRAM have a fair few products which can challenge for Shimano's dominance of the MTB component market, but no groupsets, which is Shimano's forté.

All it need, were a couple of companies, with balls, to take on the Japanese giant.

So, in a sport where balls are needed, the companies that supply us with bits, are ball-less....

I remember the days before Shimano. Huret, Milremo .. god there was some shite around.