biggest rip off bike parts…

Expensive stuff in expensive spares shocker. The way of the world. If you can afford a £1K crank…
IMO most stuff above deore.

Most outdoor brand gear in general.

Add a big brand name in (eg Gore Tex) and just double the price.

Not parts but Santa Cruz frames , how much ? Our American guide couldn’t believe how much they sell for over here , in the States they are a middling brand certainly not boutique .

+1 for a lot of so called “boutique” brands, with a warranty that’s only good for three years. There’s a good reason why I’ve never hankered for a Santa Cruz.

There’s a general trend…it’s all down to how much cash can be leveraged and how often, hence the now all too common reinvention of standards every two years or so.

As for Fox…I’ll take Rockshox every time, thanks.

With you re Fox forks , still haven’t addressed the stanchion scoring issues 🙁

Jones frame set £1200 for Cromo why

Any bike branded components, oil, grease, bolts, bearings and such that are exactly the same as non bike branded and available in any good high street or online hardware store, yet are massively more expensive on a price per quantity basis because they’re bike branded.

Even store brands. Go into Halfords and you can pick up the same items in the car section at a fraction of the price in bigger quantities (brake fluid is an example).

Shimano’s own branded tools! 😯

Another vote for 11 speed powerlinks, nearly fainted when I was going to order a couple and saw the price.

Think I paid £1.50 for 2 last time I bought some (9 speed) and you can buy a decent complete chain for less.

Don’t think I have paid over £6 for set of Shimano replacement cleats, but when you can get a set of 520 pedals for £15 , that then makes them seem expensive. Tyres for me seem to be stupid prices. Some Schwalbes are £50 each in the LBS , when Michelin make decent tyres , tubeless and good quality for half that , so you cant say its down to production costs.
Forks, well I would never pay over £400 for a pair and definitely not this years colours. At the end of the day, the basic principal is a pair of outer legs with inner ones sliding in them. As to whether the forks need a stupid priced valve or device in it, as that’s what your paying for. The technology of forks and sliders has been the same since the beginning, until you try a lefty and then you notice how much better they are.

Most things whith “Hope” written on them unfortunately :/

The Jones frame and the Jones Bars. £130 for standard ally bars? F*ck off. Really would love a frame too but my god I can’t justify that. I can get a custom titanium frame from Pact Bikes for less.

Tyres.

Tubeless stuff.

Tubeless tape, tubeless fluid, tubeless, valves, it’s all basic and cheap to make and yet the prices are mad.

We are all complaining about the price yet we still pay it…which doesn’t help.

Tubeless valves – even if I buy 1000 of them they still cost nearly as much as an inner tube!

We are all complaining about the price yet we still pay it…which doesn’t help.

^This*

* Grumbles about in pocket to find £14 for a GT replaceable mech hanger. Decides against it. Never had a mech hanger break. Fate being a fickle fistress I’ve certainly sealed mine now…

Santa Cruz bikes, and yes if you don’t like the price don’t pay!

Most things whith “Hope” written on them unfortunately

Couldn’t disagree more with this.

The fact their customer service is possibly the best out there and coupled with the fact you can easily purchase even the smallest of spare parts, I and many others would continue to use them, regardless of price.

Cost and value are 2 very different things.

re Hope. Great brakes. Great hubs. Also some of the worst QR levers I’ve ever used. Some of the most expensive headset spacers also. But they do bear the ‘Hope’ logo so they must be awesome spacers?

Try to run a manufacturing business for a few years and it’ll totally change your perspective. Many things (especially ‘cheap’ plastic parts) cost way more to make than a layperson may expect. And all the other costs of running a business add up – especially if you want to provide excellent customer service (or indeed market your products so people know you exist and consider buying them)!

There’s usually a cheaper alternative to any of the gear listed here as a rip-off. And if there isn’t, maybe there’s a reason why?

Flat pedals….at £50+ some at a £100…

tyres, defeinately tyres. No way they should cost nearly as much as car tyres.

Yes, about 20 years ago for firefighting equipment – had to withstand temperatures from -40 to +200, totally waterproof and survive being run-over by a truck!

Where’s your cheap power meter then? You’d make millions.

Tyres for me seem to be stupid prices. Some Schwalbes are £50 each in the LBS , when Michelin make decent tyres , tubeless and good quality for half that , so you cant say its down to production costs.

You can use that logic on everything though. You can buy a £5 tyre in Halfords, so Michelin are over charging. Indeed you can buy a bike for £50…

SRAM spares are stupidly expensive. XX jockey wheels were £120!

A lot of it’s about simple supply and demand. Imagine how many car tyres Michelin sell in a year compared to bike tyres. Yes overall the research, materials and production cost of a bike tyre should be a lot cheaper but the research, design and production line costs have to be split across a much smaller number of the end product compared the the larger number of car tyres.

“Rip-off” doesn’t equate to expensive – e.g. a Rapha top isn’t a rip-off, it’s sold at a price the market wants to pay. Other tops are available at different prices.

The cost of a powermeter isn’t that related to the cost of making one. It’s the sunk development costs + market value that affects the price more. If you’ve had a team developing something for several years before you sell anything (e.g. Garmin and the Vectors) you need to recoup that investment.

The example given by the OP is a good one – it’s a very specific part only available from one source. They have to make them anyway for the full units so the incremental cost of spare ones must be very small. The R&D/development costs are recouped through the sales of the powermeter/crank itself so I’d struggle to see how even supply chain/stocking costs could justify the price.

re Hope. Great brakes. Great hubs. Also some of the worst QR levers I’ve ever used. Some of the most expensive headset spacers also. But they do bear the ‘Hope’ logo so they must be awesome spacers?

At least somebody gets it. I’m not saying all hope stuff is overpriced, but £80 for a brake rotor? Or £8 per headset spacer? Come on that’s ridiculous…

elliott-20 – Member
Couldn’t disagree more with this.

The fact their customer service is possibly the best out there and coupled with the fact you can easily purchase even the smallest of spare parts, I and many others would continue to use them, regardless of price.

Cost and value are 2 very different things.

Hope bearings – identical bearings can be found in your local bearing supplier for a fraction of the price, just without the name Hope stamped on them. Great customer service is fine but if all I need is bearings I don’t see paying a premium for the name on an internal component as value for money.

On the parts front, that always amuses me. People rave about how easy it is to get Hope spares and easy maintenance of components like their hubs. Buy a DTS hub and you won’t be stripping it down to service it every 6 months anyway. 6 years more like 😉

How about the box of nitrile gloves Park sells for about £30.

Identical to those sold in Screwfix for a fiver.

Is that £80 for one of their vented rotors? How many do you think they sell? How much did the R&D cost? How long did the final design and CAM tooling take? How long does it take to machine one? How many rotors do they get from one cutting tool (surprisingly expensive things!)? What does final assembly, packing and warehousing cost? It all adds up!

If you don’t want to spend that much on a rotor there are plenty of other options. Moaning about the price of the most complex and high power rotor on the market is like moaning about the cost or fuel consumption of a Bentley for taking the kids to school…

£8 for a headset spacer? If I had millions of pounds worth of CNC machines making expensive parts like brakes and cranks and hubs I wouldn’t want to waste valuable machine time on making cheap parts like headset spacers – but if enough people ask for them I’d do it but they’d have to be sold at a high price to keep demand down and profit decent.

On the parts front, that always amuses me. People rave about how easy it is to get Hope spares and easy maintenance of components like their hubs. Buy a DTS hub and you won’t be stripping it down to service it every 6 months anyway. 6 years more like

I have four Hope hubs, ridden in all weathers, multiple times a week, thousands of miles. One pair are almost five years old and have never been serviced, one pair almost two years old and the same. One Hope BB that is even older and about to go into its third frame with original bearings, one BB that’s only 18 months old and obviously fine. And headsets likewise.

I don’t buy Hope stuff because it’s easy to service, I buy it because it rarely needs servicing – and when it finally does it’s easy and you can get the parts.

Other than brakes, Hope stuff just goes on working – and it’s not expensive once you line it up with Chris King, American Classic etc.

There’s no doubt that Santa Cruz frames are expensive but lifetime bearing replacement and unquestioning warranty support must have value too.

Other than brakes, Hope stuff just goes on working – and it’s not expensive once you line it up with Chris King, American Classic etc.

Can’t agree with that. I stopped using any hope products after being let down so many times with hub a brake failures.
Most of my wheels have American Classic hubs and they’ve been perfect with 10 min service once a year to change the free hub grease.
Parts are also cheap enough considering their service length.

Some people love their stuff and some don’t. Hey ho.

Isn’t Hope stuff made in the UK? (paying for UK staff, UK property, UK taxes etc,)

If so then it seems cheap to me.

ALL mountain bike kit in the UK is seriously overpriced IMO. How many people on low or middling income are shut out of a great hobby by the pricing? Then when you shop around to afford you are vilified for not supporting the high pricing in bike shops?

Hope bearings don’t have Hope stamped on them, they have INA or another top-end bearing manufacturers name. Yes you can buy cheaper bearings but they tend to be rubbish and I’d rather pay the extra £10-20 to not destroy my frame pivot bolts.

Agree with tyres become expensive but using triple compounds etc can be cheap. I presume everyone else buys their Maxxis tyres from Alltricks and saves 40% over rrp too?

I think many brands are taking the mickey with carbon frame prices, especially when you hear about the likes of Yeti and Evil doing everything they can to avoid warranty replacements

There appears to be alot of bitter (poor?) people on here.

The only real bike part rip offs you’ll find are from the scammers in the classifieds, who’re probably also bitter (poor?)

Cycling is a great hobby for those of us with plenty of money/disposable income; you can never have enough bikes (remember the N+1 rule!) We’re the one’s who’re happy to pay thousands of pounds for the latest cycling tech (even if we don’t know how to use it properly!)

And over time, this technology “trickles down” to the cheaper models, so those less well off can afford it/get a piece of the action – you should be thanking us, not moaning!

Cycling is a great hobby for those who’re in a less fortunate financial position aswell. But, they need to know their place; they shouldn’t be looking up Chris King hubs or Jones frames and then moaning about the price – those products aren’t for you, they’re for me!

Controversial one I know given the love for them in the bike world but…

Most things from Park Tools 😛

RicB – Member
Hope bearings don’t have Hope stamped on them, they have INA or another top-end bearing manufacturers name. Yes you can buy cheaper bearings but they tend to be rubbish and I’d rather pay the extra £10-20 to not destroy my frame pivot bolts.

Yeah, you’re right actually about the name stamp. However not on the cheaper bearings. Official Hope branded and they can be INA etc but still twice the price of an identical INA etc branded with no mention of Hope from a regular bearing supplier instead of a bike shop selling them in a Hope box/bag.

And in my opinion and experience, a 2RS bearing of “no name” is identical to one with INA/SKF’s name on it. Had named and no name and no difference at all that I can tell, and certainly not rubbish.

Sorry hora you are talking shite, as ever.

It’s a rip off etc, dream on, who is rich in the bike trade?

And guess what NO ONE needs high end stuff, Santa Cruz, Ritchey etc, plenty of bikes/parts available at affordable prices to get people riding.

It just makes me laugh at how you say its all a rip off when you constantly buy stuff WAY better than you need. “Poor me!”

Also loving druids “Hope is cheaper than really expensive stuff, so its good value”. No comparison with cheaper stuff lollllololol.

I was hoping I would be able to pick up 9 speed deore chainrings for about five pence each by now. 🙁

NEWS FLASH: Cycling is the new golf