I ride SLX. I imagine you ride a three wheel-bike with bar end tassles cynical-al.

Jockey wheels. New shimano ones are around a tenner or buy a whole new 9 speed mech for fifteen.

Hope bearings don’t have Hope stamped on them, they have INA or another top-end bearing manufacturers name.

Correct. Hope bearing are all made by INA or Enduro, they are expensive bearings no matter what because they’re good. the BB30 Enduro bearings COST Hope £25 each to buy!

Re the headset spacers and what not, I was once told, and have no reason to doubt, that all the small components they make are actually loss leaders. By the time you take machine time, raw material, staff wages, packaging, posting etc. into account it costs them more to make than they get back.

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

Are you implying that there’s anything wrong with not being stinking rich?

None. You’re still living in this fantasy land where SLX = low cost.

How many people on low or middling income are shut out of a great hobby by the pricing?

bollards dear boy, bollards. it is as expensive as you want to make it, I got back into biking via second hand bikes and parts, did it spoil my enjoyment, did it fluff. To be honest the “must have the newest wheel size, gears, suspension” crew were a godsend as it meant that deeply unfashionable bikes that are still bloody good suddenly become very affordable indeed.

I disagree with the posts about Jones being a rip off as well. Had a jones for years, yes it was quite pricey, but I will never swap it and have covered thousands of miles on it, so in its lifetime it will be much cheaper than replacing a boingy bike every few years

How many people on low or middling income are shut out of a great hobby by the pricing?

Bull, cycling (be it road or MTB) is as expensive as you want to make it. For every bloated IT consultant on their carbon Bronson moaning about forestry commission parking charges, there’s a kid on a mid 90’s hardtail with V brakes and bombers, having the time of their lives charging down the trail centres (ever been to Cannock? I’ve never seen such a wide range of kit.) Just because a mag / website reckons that SLX is the most basic groupset, doesn’t mean that everything beneath is tripe. I’d wager that a late 90’s 8 speed STX shifter is almost identical to a current deore given a decent set-up.
We only make it expensive because we think it improves our riding, and buy into all the hype.

ALL mountain bike kit in the UK is seriously overpriced IMO

nonsense!

How many people on low or middling income are shut out of a great hobby by the pricing?

you come out with this in numerous threads Hora and we keep telling you you’re still stuck in high end parts thinking.

I ride SLX

Please try and get it into your head SLX is NOT low end kit.

There are decent off-road capable bikes (with hydraulic disks for flips sake) available brand new for for £400 or less, drop to cable operated or rim brakes and with sales and deals you can often ~£250 and that’s brand new kit, look at what you can get second hand for £100 or £150, very decent MTBs is the answer, basic but still workable stuff changes hands for £50-£75 locally and I can’t imagine many people are being priced out of a hobby if they really do want to pursue it.

If you’re in the difficult position of not being able to scrape together a hundred quid for a bike after saving for a few months then you’re likely to have bigger priorities (food and shelter) than ANY hobby and even then there are local projects run to provide affordable or free bikes to people in genuine need.

Posh stuff is/can be expensive, but biking itself doesn’t have to be.

EDIT – had this response in window for ages then got distracted and beaten to it by scotroutes with

None. You’re still living in this fantasy land where SLX = low cost.

Jones Truss forks but only cause I can’t afford them and this makes me want them more!

Yes, some stuff is expensive but it’s all relative, it just gets lighter and with more exotic materials, functionally similar.

If you desire / want / need top end stuff it’s expensive no matter the field.

My bestest (well only) MTB has a carbon frame and nice (to me) Reba MoCo forks, but heavens above it ‘only’ has a Deore 10spd drive train and Deore brakes, it still works well enough for me and is more than likely better than I’ll ever be. I’d like to change it all for new XT 11spd, but I don’t know if I’ll really see the benefit to be honest.

Tyres are one area I don’t mind paying what seems like rather a lot for, afterall that (couple of) inch contact patch is what keeps you going forwards in a vaguely upright position.

People are only priced out of a bracket they aspire (can’t really afford) to be in; there’s more than enough lower tier kit that while it might weight a bit more / not be quite so buttery smooth / not look as shiny it’ll no doubt have very little detrimental affect on your actual riding experience / performance.

My cycling ‘hobby’ costs me around £10 per month at most (once the initial purchase of bike is counted for)

So cycling is very open to people with very limited budgets/requiring benefits to survive.

Shame they are all too bitter to ride a bike though…

£11 for an injection moulded plastic Specialized Rib Cage bottle cage does seem a bit of a rip-off, even taking into account tooling costs. They have made the same design for many years now (I had one on my 01 FSR) so the design/tooling costs will have been eaten up by now.

I did a 6 month work placement at uni working for a large German plastic injection moulding company and seeing the quantity of components that will come from one machine per day makes you realise how cheaply things can be made, if they are required in volume.

Mech hangers. Too expensive, too many variants. Sometimes too delicate.

Reverb lever repair kits- £36. Cynical people might also note that it’s quite a delicate part, and when fitted as recommended is very exposed to damage.

hora – Member

I ride SLX

So just 2 steps down from top-of-the-range.

deadkenny – Member

Most things from Park Tools

If you’ve ever got a poo you want rid of, dip it in blue plastic, someone’ll give you £30 for it.

Powerlinks in any quise seem ludicrously expensive. Same with spares for reverbs £60 for the button and hose from a discounter when you can buy a complete new one for £160. Somebody is having a laugh

Apart from 3 rides on the road bike (at zero cost), I’ve ridden my P7 SS every week since the summer.

And I’ve not changed/upgraded/replaced a single thing. It’s cost me ZERO. Yup, absolutely zilch. Nada.

( I do happen to live where there’s very good riding, but even so… )