Anything made by avid or SRAM, avid because the kit is terrible and SRAM because it’s horrendously priced.
Santa cruz carbon frames, the price discrepancy between here and the us is disgusting.

Stans latex

£7 for access to Dalby

Wow, 2 pages in and not a mention of Crank Bros products! Oh and inner tubes, they tend to be a rip off unless you buy them in a supermarket.
Tyres are also a rip off but the performance gains of a decent tyre soften the blow somewhat.

Kevlar beaded tyres, I mean the steel beaded are just the same and probly two thirds of the price, maybe a little heavier but seat better

Oakleys

Has anyone said Rapha yet?

Road sportive entry fees .

chain guides? £100+ for a cnc piece of metal/plastic

Olympic tickets for the road race – being charged to watch an event on public roads wtf!

Anything Assos

Chainrings , it’s ridiculous that you can buy a chainset with BB for less than the cost of 3 chainrings .

Thanks faz083 for mentioning chain guides.
use a superstar top guide on my 1×9 hardtail which was ideal at £15 but e.13, mrp and straitline selling guides for £120ish is completely stupid.

Allen bolts- which are pence when you buy them in bulk, or a few £ in your LBS.
Gear cables- you get raped in your LBS when you really need them.

Has anyone said Rapha yet? disagree with you there quality is great and the design is excellent – R&D needs paying for.

Where to start…..Excluding the diesel to get there:

1. Chain lube
2. muc-off (muc up and use some kitchen spray)
3. Shorts
4. Bearings
..
59. Energy food.

£8.50 to park at Bedgebury.
Anything with a Fox logo on it.
Shimano’s price hikes post 2008.

skills days.handing over hard cash over to someone to tell you how to jump,courner or how to a drop off and so on. when you can go and spend no money by trying harder or ride with better riders

Cassette is probably due to riding about 200m a week and me hating overly lubed chains.

Rubbish. I lube my road bike monthly at most, and get 5000+ miles out of a cassette. In fact, just changed a chain with that and the (Dura Ace) cassette was fine.

OT I reckon OEM brake pads. I nearly cried when I needed new pads at Afan. Handed over £40 to Skyline for 2 sets. They’re no better than those at 1/4 the price!

Frame Tape in a stupid little packet (not from tape shop)
Bolts (not from bolt shop)

To counter a few from above
Carbon isn’t always about the weight – SC is much stiffer in Carbon.
Anything with DH on it – generally some more honest stuff out there
Entry Fees – not many race organisers quitting to sit by the pool all day

+1 for SPD cleats.. It must cost them next to nothing to make.

Formula rotors — the centrelock ones.
£55 each on sale. Each!

You don’t have to by it.

Muck Off is esentially Sodium Hydroxide, with some Traffic Film Remover. You can get it in bulk for not a lot at all. Cleats? How often do folk need to change them? I’ve ride a fair bit and haven’t changed either my road (Keo copies) or MTB (Shimano) in 3 years. New shoes on the way and the cleats will go on them. Yes they’re pricey but you don’t need to change them that often surely? Lube isn’t that pricey. I’ll certainly agree on the shorts.. £70 for some basic pairs of “MTB specific baggies” no thanks I’ll stick to me lycra. CNC’d stuff I can sort of understand because of the waste but mech hangers are just daft and the same for other disposable parts. That said, has anyone ever done a cost comparison of running a drivetrain into the ground and regular “maintenance” of changing parts?

And rotors, Get a rotor truing tool and buy KCNC rotors?

Most anything purchased at full RRP.

DH races where there only the option of uplifts rather than cutting costs and offering a push only entry.

Hope pawl springs.

Hope pawls.

Hope Pro III bearings. (On the other hand Pro II are generic so there is lots of choice).

Shimano HT II NDS bearings – why do I HAVE to buy a pair when its only ever the NDS that fails?

Formula oro olive and hose – £45 per end! I’m sure I bought the whole brakes cheaper.

I’m sure I could go on all night. I must be getting grumpy!

Thinking about it, folks harping on about OEM parts, the same is true with cars, buy third party parts and you’ll save a fair packet. The same is true in most industries when it comes to OEM kit. Whe have the same with parts for presses, cheese vats, cutting machines, check weighers etc. If you buy the named part it’s gonna cost you.

It would probably cost me more to insure my bike than my car.

The price of tyres does my head in especially when the markup from the shops is 40-50%!

I honestly have not come across a tyre with these kinds of margins even based on RRP.

Rubber is now expensive, that’s just the way it is, we’ve been spoiled in the past.

Doesn’t stop tyre prices making me think twice, even though i get them at trade.

I think suspension forks and frames are a complete ripoff. That’s from someone who understands the work that has gone into it.

trail centre parking prices….

Maxels , wtf!!!! How can they charge so much?

The new reverb I love my reverbs, but you can get a set of decent forks (reduced in price) for the same price as the new model I can’t understand the price!

Heh heh. This could go on a long time.

Clothing is a terribly high price to pay, all of it.
Inner tubes have to be a massive eraner for the manufacturers.

Mounting brackets for GPS/Phones/lights are the biggest mickey take going. If ASDA can sell one for £5 quid with a light which lasts for three years, how come the more expensive manufacturers charge £25? Yeah, economies of scale but I wouldn’t go to ASDA if the others brought their prices down and quality up.

Tyres – Some are absolute bobbins, awful things which don’t grip well or last a long time yet they still cost a fortune.

And as above, some of the fork manufacturers are having a laugh. FOX forks cost a million pounds and fail after 1 mile. I have a pair of bombers that are about 7 years old, never been serviced, cost me £100 and work great. I’ll still be riding them in another 7 years.

For me it’s got to be the price some bike lights fetch, I know they might be brimming with the latest teck. But I still find it hard to get my head round some of the prices some brands fetch!

Has anyone else mentioned Rapha yet?

( top tip; you’re not paying for the quality or the R&D, you’re paying for the marketing)

Mojo’s forks and suspension’s servicing… A bloody rip off!!!!!

Avid brakes. Seem OK at first, especially when they are on sale but they never seeem to last 12 months before needing something major doing to them. I bought a new rear brake every 10 months for about 4 years and worked out I was spending £7.50 per month on brakes for my bike.

I dont mind shelling out for things but I wish they would last a bit better. I’ve got a 10 year old set of hope minis on my hardtail and I’ve never even bled them

Working in pricing I was told very quickly that RRP is just a made up figure and our MSP (minimum selling price)is something like 78% off RRP anyway, so go for it and sell at what you can – but not above RRP.

I’ve seen cleats keep popping up in this thread – I got mine off ebay from a cycle retailer at £5.

But yes it’s all a big con – Rip Off Britain as the Daily Wail would say.

The way bike manufacturers think we won’t notice if they stick a Deore cassette on an otherwise well-specced bike.

Bionicon C.Guide….great bit of kit…just £20 too expensive for what amounts to a small bit of metal and plastic.

Everything. The whole bloody lot is way overpriced.

Road sportive entry fees .

No need to pay these (unless you want an official time), just turn up, follow the signs and ride. It’s bad form however if the entry fee is reasonable (Evans) or if the event is for charity.

Chainguides – definitely
Any of the top end groupsets – yes they are good but difference in price / performance between XT and XTR isn’t worth it.
Also can’t understand why Santa Cruz frames are so much more here than the US. Seriously considered going to the US to buy, would still have had change.