bike costs – getting more ridiculous?

Talking to my LBS today heard of some quite alarming new price rises…

Apparenly Rockshox Lyrik 2 Step Air will be going up to £950!!! Presumably rises on other forks could follow as well.

More price rises coming through on Turner and Cove too – not too happy about that given I am looking at one of the new Spots. An extra £100 there.

More price rises from Fox on the way too apparently.

When I built my first Nomad, pretty much cost me £3500 all in, now you’re looking at not having much change from £3000 after just getting the frame and fork.

So, anyone else getting put off buying stuff? And will prices go the other way if FX becomes favourable with the dollar for example or lower raw material, energy, shipping costs etc feed through to manufacturers?

p.s. I have a spanking new 2008 Lyrik in the box if any one is looking for a good deal 😉

If a pound sterling is worth 25% less than it was a year ago, it’s not really surprising, is it?

On the other hand, in 97 or so, a rigid fork, 7-speed, canti braked steel-framed bike would have cost £800 (GT Karakorum). You could get something much better for the money today.

There’s no need to spend anywhere near that amount though. Sure, you can, but a great bike can still be had for a lot less.

Moses, true enough, but irrespective of the reason why (and it isn’t just foreign exchange), the cost to us Brits for stuff has really hiked and it keeps on going up – presumably quite a few folk will be putting that custom build on hold for a while…

I was lucky enough to get Wiggle’s last set of maxle u-turn Revs before Christmas. Cost me £380 with my 20% discount. The same forks now are retailing at list £639 apparently, although you can get them cheaper. But not less than about £550.

So it seems everything in the “new” batches has now been repriced.

i got some 08 fox f100 rlc’s brand spanking in my lbs for £350, packaged full warranty etc, well chuffed!

Last year £1=$1.95 =215Yen =1.34 Euro =1.95 CHF
Today £1=$1.47 =138Yen =1.09Euro =1.65 CHF

I think that should explain the rises. Basically the Pound is tanking against almost every currency on earth. Everything gets more expensive to buy. The only hope is that commodity prices having collapsed might reduce the prices of some things.

It’s perfectly understandable with the currency situation, but at the same time as boutique brands are increasing prices, UK retailers are advertising 10%, 15% and 20% off 2009 bikes.

Presumably they’re trying to maintain cashflow in the face of the downturn, but it doesn’t bode well for high-end brands.

Steel hardtails with a Deore groupset for everybody!

Pound vs Euro will correct itself to some extent. The Central Bank is bringing its rates down and Euro has big structural problems looming.

What I find ironic was that the BoE reduced interest rates to ‘help’ us and get us spending but actually its having the opposite effect as by devaluing the pound the price of imported goods went up and thats putting consumers off from spending…well its putting me off and I love a new set of Pikes!

gee I’m glad i bought also same fork i bought in mid december is £180 more exspensive 😈

I found usedbikepartsuk on ebay has reduced my repair costs.
Have a look. 🙂

Bikes have got more expensive in the long term though.

A 2001 S-Works FSR cost £2600, for 2009 an entry level Epic is £2700, the S-Works is £4500.

However, frames are now carbon, and actually the Epic Expert is a similar spec to the 2001 S-Works. Whilst the 2009 S-Works is a far superior bike.

I think the short term price increases can be attributed to things like the weakness of the pound, cost of raw materials (we can thank the aviation industry for taking all the carbon) etc as mentioned above. In the long run, bikes are probably better value than they used to be, or certainly not much worse.

yep, the weakening pound isn’t helping things at all.

There will be lots of manufacturers with goods either on their way or which are not cancelable. With warehouses already full, they’ve got to dump what they’ve got to make space for the rest of the bikes coming. (Presumably what they can’t sell either).

Weren’t we all told to expect rises this year as the cost of the raw materials has risen? Add in the weak 3 and that explains it

Specialized pricing was always a bit suspect on their high-end S-Works – I was bored one day and worked out I could buy the frame/forks and all the same kit (or better) for a lot less than they were selling the bike for (and that’s without their buying power).

The boutique brands might take a bit of a hammering – the big players need to get shot of last years models to make space for this years, so they can drop prices on their margins – the smaller makers who don’t have a new bike a year are going to have to pass on the increased costs for materials and transport etc.

njee – doing a VERY basic inflation assumption of 8 years at 2.2% – that would put the 2001 S-Works at £3100 – carbon frame typically adds a fair whack even today. And suspension has moved on a lot – who’s paying for that R&D.

I agree that you could probably build something off the peg as good for less money but I don’t think the Spesh price is THAT suspicious…

If a pound sterling is worth 25% less than it was a year ago, it’s not really surprising, is it?

Totally agree. However how many UK bike companies are cheaper to their UK customers than US imports? I know some are Taiwan imports etc however surely they are seeing what their competitors are pricing at and matching accordingly.

Dont get me wrong. I love mtb bling however two grand for some aluminum and a shock is bloody ridiculous.

The same thing will happen to the UK cycling industry as happened with the sport markets. Sales will drop hugely, brands will look to larger more cost effective European distribution deals or replace distributors entirely with their own lean service.

this happened in the snow/surf/kite/skate markets already.

Your Fox/Rockshox forks distributors add about 40% to the cost of your forks. Not a bad slice for holding stock, arbitraging the markets and refusing warranty support.

All George Osbourne’s fault! 👿

😉

I got a brand new Gas Gas 300cc Enduro Bike with top spec components for about £4200………….. so I’d say yes MTB’s are overpriced. Less so than some road bikes – £4500 for a top end Litespeed anyone………..

I just got an SLX rear mech and LX 580 shifters for £54 from Merlin, i’d say that’s good value for money?

I don’t recall bike components getting cheaper when the pound was worth 2 dollars tho – certainly the price of nomad stayed the same… when the pound is strong the retailers keep the extra profit, when the pound is weak they pass the cost onto us.

That’s the magic of capitalism I guess. And also why I rarely support ‘my lbs’… chain reaction all the way.

Raw material costs are going up which is in part the issue.

But with the £/Ä parity there lies the main problem.

I can see us joining the Euro in the next 2-3 years, its inevitable since we import almost everything and dont manufacture.

And if London loses its status as the financial capital, then the UK will be fecked!!

Ewan, In the last three years the RRP of an XT rear mech (for example) has fluctuated a lot.

I recall that an rdm750 mech used to be £55 about five years ago, the price dropped to £45 at the middle of last year, and has now risen back (for the new alternative) to around £55, with another price increase due in March!

The RRP as suggested to retailers by the importer DOES track the exchange rate, and goes down as well as up. For a while Shimano was a lot cheaper than SRAM for comparative components, end result we sold/bought a lot more Shimano.

I got a brand new Gas Gas 300cc Enduro Bike with top spec components for about £4200………….. so I’d say yes MTB’s are overpriced.

i wondered when someone would draw that comparison 🙂 i’d go further. ajp do a very neat 125 enduro/supermoto for around 2500 GBP. it’s a much more fun way of spending 2500 GBP than stressing over whether the not-good-enough-for-the-aeronautical-industry designer of a carbon mtb frame actually did his finite stress analysis correctly.

my own view is that if you’ve spent in excess of 1000 GBP on a BIKE you’re buying it for reasons other than the sheer fun of being outdoors and having a blast.

but ymmv.