If I had unlimited disposable income I’d buy a 9k bike..

Don’t set your sights that low. If you’ve got enough disposable income, 9k is scratching the surface 🙂

@kingforaday, I noticed, just used it as a platform for a gag

😉

Ha, to be fair, I have nice bikes. No jealousy (or envy). Perhaps I should have said pricks who want the most expensive of everything simply because it’s expensive, not necessarily the best. Conspicuous consumers. Willy wagglers. Flashy bastards. It’s less about the actual purchase and amount – more about the true motivation. The few people I know like this are generally pricks, and my friends and I tend to avoid them like the plague. Others may feel differently.

I suspected that was what you were probably getting at, still a shame to tar all of them with the same brush though.

Lots of the guys I road bike with ride bikes around that money and some have much cheaper bikes. It’s whatever they are happy with. I enjoy riding my cheap winter bike and expensive summer best best.

Although I do think that roadies spend more than MTBers on bikes.

Although it sounds (and is) a lot, the technology this is buying is at the pinnacle of development. Compare that with many other activities – cars for example. My road race bike is £4K, and to all intents, only a lighter groupset and wheels# away from being in the pro peleton – How much do you think you’d need to spend to get F1 advances in a car?

Bike technology is very accessible, and the trickle down effect makes it more so.

#I don’t race electronic or Dura Ace, nor tubs.

Although I do think that roadies spend more than MTBers on bikes.

This. Heritage costs a lot, MTB brands haven’t been around as long as roadie ones, to build it up.

This. Heritage costs a lot, MTB brands haven’t been around as long as roadie ones, to build it up.

I dunno – there’s some seriously expensive bikes out there: SC, Pivot, Niner etc. There are also brutally expensive bikes from the mainstream manufacturers.

In a lot of ways, there’s a lot more bits on a FS MTB – front and rear shock, linkages, dropper seatposts etc. Also the groupsets have become way more exotic since the move to 1x (SRAM, I’m looking at your stupidly priced cassettes here). Even carbon wheels have become more common these days, especially in XC.

In fact, I think the only thing that has remained resolutely in the field of road would be electric shifting which hasn’t really moved out of the “I get it for free from my sponsor” class of XC rider.

For all of these reasons, MTBs *should* be way more expensive than road bikes. For some bikes, they are, but these are the exception. I suspect some serious profit margins on the high end road bikes are involved here…

I’d buy a £9k bike only if I could afford to buy one for my cycling buddy too.

This. Heritage costs a lot,

Can you expand on this?

Pimpmaster Jazz – Member
OP: A lot of triathletes are time poor and cash rich. They’ll blow wads on ways to knock a second off a time.*

*Or this was the given assumption when I worked in the trade. Triathletes were certainly targeted to buy the shinier end of the kit spectrum.

They’re also REALLY serious, I mean, like way more serious than you. They RACE and are REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT IT! They want EVERYONE to know that they RACE and are REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT IT!

Especially when they come in to a shop the day before their REALLY IMPORTANT RACE and demand that everyone else’s bikes get put to the back of the queue because the halfwitted dingbats don’t know how to change a brake pad or something.

Why do I get the feeling that the Brownlee brothers pissed in flashys shoes. 😀

😆

Nah, they’re the good sort! Few and far between, sadly, but they are!

I bought my dream bike for £1k recently (2nd hand)

I think if I was to buy my dream bike new (based around a custom frame) I’d struggle to get anywhere near to £9k.

You’re lacking imagination.

Just the Enve wheels would get you over the £1k mark no?

curiousyellow – Member
You’re lacking imagination.

Just the Enve wheels would get you over the £1k mark no?

Vital for any REALLY SERIOUS triathlete. (Your user name only helps here!)

£9K ? That’s what we paid for our first house !

The sum total of my five bikes is less than £9k, way less in fact.

I could probably afford to spend more, and my next MTB will be maybe £3k. My ability doesn’t justify spending more and I’d rather know I’m breaking (relatively) cheaper stuff.

curiousyellow – Member

You’re lacking imagination.

Just the Enve wheels would get you over the £1k mark no?

Custom steel frame £2k
DA wheels £1k
DA groupset £2k
leaving £4k for trimmings!

Would I ever go into a shop and pony up £9k for a bike in one go? Nope not a chance. Have I owned £9k bikes yes, my current mtb has a rrp of over that, I’d never drop that amount of money in one go though.

Don’t let bitterness blind you, people spend money on the things they want to spend their money all, we’re all just trying to be happy.

I read the £400/month car PCP as making the same point as you, rather than the poster being bitter. Most people think nothing of spending that sort of money on cars/socialising- if you’re spending money you can afford in a way that makes you happy, it shouldn’t matter whether it’s a bike, a car, holidays etc. Some people make judgements because it’s “only” a bike.

I’ve bought 3 bikes so far this year, taking my total to 9, but I drive an 18 year old car. If someone gets the same level of pleasure I get from my bikes from, say a Lotus then that’s cool and neither of us is a dick because of how we chose to spend our money.

neither of us is a dick because of how we chose to spend our money.

Wise words on STW this early in the morning.

neither of us is a dick because of how we chose to spend our money.

True but I am also quite within my rights to form a biased opinion about someone based solely on their spending habits

It’s funny, but this thread shares many properties with the one on road bike wear. I really don’t understand why people get so worked up about what kit other people use when out biking. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with being a bit envious if you see someone out riding an exotic bike, but to think less of them because of it…? WAT.

There have always been expensive bikes, large manufacturers like to show off what they can achieve with big budgets so they can make the rest of the range look like better VFM, and boutique brands don’t typically have the scale to hack their prices too low without going bankrupt…

Of course £9k isn’t pocket change for the majority of people these days so “conspicuous spending” does stir up a bit of a response… I do think silly bike prices muddy the waters with cycling a bit, Yeah the “new-golfers” like to display their wealth and the “Serious” riders want the “Best available” kit and so long as it’s within their gift to afford it then fine, crack on, but they’re not actually the major stake in the market, shifting bikes in the £300-800 quid range is still probably the main goal for most of the cycle industry… Cycling isn’t an expensive activity, but an individuals mindset can make it into one.
TBH these days I’m past feeling envy for people who’s wealth hasn’t necessarily bought them any taste or judgement 😉

For my own part none of the bikes I own today has cost me a large sum, lots of used kit, plenty of making do, certainly very little bling on my bikes…
In the past the most I’ve spent on a single bike is probably a cumulative £2Kish but I was younger, single, mortgageless and wasn’t really keeping a tally on personal spending…
If I had £9k spare to spend on bikes today it wouldn’t all go at once on a single whip and I actually think I’d struggle to justify a single bike over ~£2.5K to myself, let alone ‘er-indoors, but we all have different circumstances and aspirations.

I’m pretty sure my various in-laws (parents, sisters etc.) totally fail to understand why I would spend so much money on a bike (and then time riding them), in exactly the same way that I personally don’t understand some of their spending and life decisions. Thankfully my wife is somewhat more understanding because she sees what I get out of it.

My mountain bike wasn’t particularly cheap, but I love the fact that people can get outside on something on either end of the spectrum. If I see something lovely (and therefore probably pricey) I prefer to admire it than get jealous.

ctk – Member

curiousyellow – Member
You’re lacking imagination.

Just the Enve wheels would get you over the £1k mark no?

Custom steel frame £2k
DA wheels £1k
DA groupset £2k
leaving £4k for trimmings![/quote]

pffft, 2k for a custom frame, you must be looking at the amateur builders, go find the 5k+ master builders 😉

Also, DA wheels? you really want that mainstream off-the-peg tat?

If you’ve got the money there are ways to spend it…

While super posh bikes will likely forever be out of my budget I love them, I love seeing all the details and the cutting edge stuff (whether it ultimately works/improves or not), it’s like looking at supercars and such, it’s the pinnacle of our sport/hobby, sure it’s a massive indulgence and not necessary for 99.9999% but they’re great machines anyway and small change compared to cars, yachts, planes etc.

No, but still plenty of people who can easily afford it, and I don’t see why it’s any more “conspicuous spending” than owning a brand new Mondeo, which isn’t the sort of thing anybody gets upset about.

Well, I must say, rather £9 grand on a whole bike than £60 on a bloody bell! (not random, there’s a thread)

£70 if you want a black one…

Let’s see… Legend Il Re custom Ti frame – from £5200
SRAM eTap groupset, plus matching Quarq powermeter crankset plus chainrings – £2000
Wheels – £1000+
Other bits – £500ish?

That’s tickling £9K.

£1000 for wheels? It’s like you’re wilfully not trying.

€6750 to you mate

Oh yeah, and if you bend ’em, they can’t be fixed, you buy another…

€6750 to you mate

Oh yeah, and if you bend ’em, they can’t be fixed, you buy another…

And they’ve sold out of the Gold Edition ones, so it just goes to show. Money in the hands of fools… 😉

They’re also REALLY serious, I mean, like way more serious than you. They RACE and are REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT IT! They want EVERYONE to know that they RACE and are REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT IT!

😆

Yes, that.

£9k for just a bike seems quite outrageous to me but I suppose at least you can ride a bike. You can’t ride a Andy Warhol or Jasper Johns print. Just the way the world works. War in one country, expensive toys in another.