Bike frames…they're getting expensive now aren't they!

Hang on what new Yeti frame?

The sb “turq” are £3700.

Wait ten months and you’ll get one nearly half that price.

I picked up a brand new sb6c frame with a free hope headset for about 2k at the end of last season before this year’s frames came out.

Makes me laugh. Spend 5-7grand on a bike , when if you look around you could build a new full suspension for under 2g that would go up and down just as well as a 5-7g bike.

Can we pop this is the haters love to hate thread? The inverse snob is trying today

I have been mountain biking since I was 12 years old. I am not “playing”… due to taking big risks and working bloody hard, I can afford whatever bike I want now… and whats wrong with that? Its tiring the constant righteous poor lobbyists on here at times!

Ah, I don’t care what brand or how much your bike was ( nor do a lot of people I know/ ride with) or how capable you are ( you’ll be faster braver than I am more than likely) it’s all about larking about on a bike and enjoying yourself on a bike! I though the OP was just expressing a blimey that’s a fair few quid thought, I had the same when I saw the 10k intense or a super record eps groupset costing 4K+!!

Wot he said^^^its not a pop about how much money people have or spend,but some of the stuff,bikes components, clothing is just blatantly over the top expensive poor value for money (in my opinion)

Wot he said^^^its not a pop about how much money people have or spend,but some of the stuff,bikes components, clothing is just blatantly over the top expensive poor value for money (in my opinion)

Yeah, for a 10 grand build I’d rather have some kind of modular set of cromoly front triangles of varying lengths, rocker links of varying progressiveness and lateral stiffness and rear swingarms with lots of length adjustment.

If I’m spending crazy money I’d want almost factory level options of custom tuning and geometry options to fettle – not a chassis that is a bit stiffer and lighter.

It’s all a bit too chav/Porsche Macan – as opposed to being function/racing oriented.

For me the nice thing about mountain biking is the sheer variety and choice there is in the market to suit most people’s budget. I think it’s great that their are aspirational brands. It’s also important for folks to understand that there are different perceptions of value. What I see as good value is different from the next person. Do I think the price of a new pair of 36’s is ridiculous…yes. Would I buy another set…absolutely.
But then I wouldn’t touch one of those high end Yeti frames, as I just couldn’t bring myself to shell out that much cash on a brand which has currently quite questionable issues over build quality.

Ive bought one. Do i hide under a rock or post a picture?

Ive bought one. Do i hide under a rock or post a picture?

Wear your turquoise with pride 🙂 Don’t let the holier-than-thou-because-I-ride-an-On-One-rigid-singlespeed-that-cost-a-tenner STW types put you off enjoying what you worked hard for!

If I’m spending crazy money I’d want almost factory level options of custom tuning and geometry options to fettle – not a chassis that is a bit stiffer and lighter.

It’s all a bit too chav/Porsche Macan – as opposed to being function/racing oriented.
Well I guess you can spend the money and get something like that. Though you are in the minority there, given the frame will be stuck under someone like Richie Rude
http://www.silverfish-uk.com/ProductDetail/0/20578/SB6-T-Series-Frame
it actually screams function and racing and winning and being sorted in the geometry 😉

Mikewsmith.
I think I speak for everyone when I say I’m getting pretty sick and tired of you coming on here with your logical and reasonable responses.
Consider this a warning, next time I’m reporting you to Mods.

😉

Cheers Rich, I’m looking forward to seeing the man pilot one of these round our local trails next weekend too 🙂

Yeah fingers crossed the weather treats they all a little better this round.

January compared to March…..

mb51
Makes me laugh. Spend 5-7grand on a bike , when if you look around you could build a new full suspension for under 2g that would go up and down just as well as a 5-7g bike.

er, no, no you couldn’t!

i’ve got a 6.5k bike, i built it from new parts, and it has the best of everything on it. The parts cost 3.5k, the frame the other 3k.

You might be able, we some lucky ebaying etc, be able to find the same parts second hand and hence build the same spec bike for a bit less (second hand XTR di2 anyone?? 😉 but you ain’t going to build it for £2k to anything like the same spec!

mb51 – Member
Makes me laugh. Spend 5-7grand on a bike , when if you look around you could build a new full suspension for under 2g that would go up and down just as well as a 5-7g bike.

This is what I like about MTBing and why I was so keen to throw myself down suicidal looking hill sides on my 456-evo despite it being a cheap bike…..yes I could have afforded better, yes I could’ve signed up to finance and yes I could’ve wielded the credit card to keep up with the Joneses but what’s the point when it’s just a depreciating asset that will get hammered downhill.
It’s why I love bands like Solid, Radon, Rose, YT, Canyon etc…..top spec components hanging on decent frames sent straight to your door, love the direct sales model.

I do think those Yeti frames are lush though!! I’d not buy one but it doesn’t stop me thinking oh that’s a lush looking bike! Same as a sports car if you get my meaning? I appreciate it, but I’d put my pennies else where!

‘A 3k bike is 95% as good as a 7k+ bike’ is the saying that gets trotted out a lot in these situations.

Aye, and an ape is 95% the same as a human, but it’s the extra 5% that makes all the difference.

er, no, no you couldn’t!

i’ve got a 6.5k bike, i built it from new parts, and it has the best of everything on it. The parts cost 3.5k, the frame the other 3k.

You might be able, we some lucky ebaying etc, be able to find the same parts second hand and hence build the same spec bike for a bit less (second hand XTR di2 anyone?? but you ain’t going to build it for £2k to anything like the same spec!

You have totally missed the point.

It wasn’t that you could build a used bike for +/- £2k to the same spec as a £5-7k bike, it was the point that a well spec’d, used £2k bike is just as fast as your £7k vanity project, that probably gets used to about 40% of its potential…

Aye, and an ape is 95% the same as a human, but it’s the extra 5% that makes all the difference.

You’re just kidding yourself if you believe that. The extra 5% must make all the difference when you’re wobbling around the outside of a 10ft double as you are too scared to hit it, along with 99% of the other riders on here.

Classic case of it being the wizard, not the wand. But hey, if people want to buy £7,8,9k bikes to do that, fine, crack on.

Aye, and an ape is 95% the same as a human, but it’s the extra 5% that makes all the difference.

There are still people winning or competitive on aluminium frames that cost half that of their carbon competitors.

I call bullshit on your analogy, people that say this are those people trying to make themselves feel better about spending 7 to 10 grand but don’t understand what actual performance is and quantify it.

it actually screams function and racing and winning and being sorted in the geometry

It’s sorted for Richie Rude – and then you can spend 3.6 grand on learning to ride around his taste in bikes.

Sheep.

Classic case of it being the wizard, not the wand. But hey, if people want to buy £7,8,9k bikes to do that, fine, crack on.

I will, thanks.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/saturday-is-the-new-friday-new-bike-day

that a well spec’d, used £2k bike is just as fast as your £7k vanity project

Besides being patently untrue (for me at least), it’s none of anybody’s business what anyone rides. If someone can afford a nice bike – good for them. Their level of riding is utterly and completely irrelevant.
Vanity project? What a bunch of bollocks.

wrecker – Member
that a well spec’d, used £2k bike is just as fast as your £7k vanity project

Besides being patently untrue (for me at least), it’s none of anybody’s business what anyone rides. If someone can afford a nice bike – good for them. Their level of riding is utterly and completely irrelevant.

Nicely put fella!!

I’m not sure it is –

If I was offered to choose between a 1300 quid Aluminium frameset, with a 64 degree head angle, a 470mm reach, a 335mm bottom bracket height and a 442mm chanstay lenght

vs

A 3700 quid Carbon wonder bike with a 66 degree head angle, a 430mm reach, a 350mm bb height and a 430mm chainstay length….

I could take a pretty good guess at which bike would be objectively faster down a decent black/DH run.

In actual fact…looking at the numbers… my aluminium Reign is lower, slacker and longer than an SB6.

It’s sorted for Richie Rude – and then you can spend 3.6 grand on learning to ride around his taste in bikes.

Sheep.
Pmsl perhaps talent makes it work, all this fiddling with a couple of mm here and quarter of a degree are just masking that for some people.

Besides being patently untrue (for me at least), it’s none of anybody’s business what anyone rides. If someone can afford a nice bike – good for them. Their level of riding is utterly and completely irrelevant.
Vanity project? What a bunch of bollocks.

Then you are either an absolute ripper on a bike who should probably be in the Southern Hemisphere at the moment racing the EWS & Crankworx, or slightly delusional that for your average rider, the final 5% makes the difference, when you arn’t even close to the limits of the bike.

Very few people need, use or even understand that level of performance. However that’s not to say they shouldn’t be able to want it or have it. That however, in reality is the driving force. Want. Nothing wrong with that at all.

If you honestly believe a good second hand £2k purchase is slower in reality for your average rider than a £7k enduro wonderbike, then good for you. If riding a £7k bike gives you pleasure from the spec’ing it to buying it, to looking at it in the shed & riding it, then also, good for you too – that is what it’s all about.

Having a quick look of sub £2k bikes in this category used on Pinkbike includes; Reigns, Patrols, Capra’s, Strives, Slashes, Remedys, Sights, Airdrops, Dune’s, Process’s, Mega’s, Enduro’s, etc. The list is endless.

None of which will have electric gears, but all of which will go around the jumps just as fast 😉

Comparing two differently angled bikes at two different price points and saying the alloy one with downhill geo is better for downhill Vs the carbon trail bike is totally missing the point.

If you had all the same geometry numbers on the 7k wonder bike then I’d wager it would be quicker (or a bit nicer to ride) in the same pair of reasonably competent hands. How much quicker will vary.

I used to own very xc oriented bikes when i started out. At the pinnacle of my xc bikes was a £2300 (at list) hardtail. It replaced a very nicely specced hardtail built with XT and other nice bits. The new bike was way quicker in my not especially fit or skilled hands. Lightweight and well equipped made a difference to how quick i could climb and how it behaved in twisty singletrack. Each calorie burned went further so so did I.

Even if it isn’t quicker MAMIBA (Middle Aged Man in Body Armour) is buying it with his bonus and helping fund the trickle down of that tech to bikes the younger or less financially suicidal rider can afford. So I say go for it MAMIBA. In fact buy more of them and i don’t give a crap if you can’t ride for toffee so long as you’re not a rude and inconsiderate trail user.

I’d love a few of the skills of some people who ride crappier / or better kit than me but I don’t have the time with a family and a hectic work life to spend the hours riding i would need to acquire them. I don’t get jealous I am happy for those who can dedicate the time to learn for their accomplishments.

There is a whiff on this thread of people being insecure about what they ride/jealous of the financially more fortunate rather than being happy they can out ride them. I’d rather ride a wheelie bin well than a super bike badly but I’m comfy being in the middle. Middling skills and mid range kit seems an ok compromise for me (MAMIB – middle aged man in baggies).

Then you are either an absolute ripper on a bike who should probably be in the Southern Hemisphere at the moment racing the EWS & Crankworx, or slightly delusional that for your average rider, the final 5% makes the difference, when you arn’t even close to the limits of the bike.

Give it a rest. Can you not comprehend that someone might know what bike suits them better than you do?
I have had enough bikes(!) to know what I want, what I prefer and what I’m faster on. You don’t, because you aren’t me.

If you honestly believe a good second hand £2k purchase is slower in reality for your average rider than a £7k enduro wonderbike, then good for you.

You need to understand the concept of individualism.
It’s a 100% indisputable fact that I am faster on my current nice(ish but certainly not Di2 nice) bike than I was on the Trance and Reign (which were pretty nice too) I had immediately prior to buying this.

Used vs. new is such a pointless comparison. Yes obviously it’s cheaper.

butterbean
You have totally missed the point.

Sorry but no i haven’t.

You said “A £2k bike is as fast as a £7k bike up and down hill”

and i said “No, No it isn’t”

Yes i completely agree we are talking small margins, but they are definitely margins that exist, and in fact, can be critical.
Let me give you an example on my Dune. Because it has an (expensive) carbon frame and (expensive)carbon components, it’s light. This means i can sacrifice a bit of mass to put on strong tyres. I run Super Gravity casings, yet the overall mass of my 180mm bike is still sub 30lb. This means it goes uphill ok, but i can smash down the other side and not worry about punctures. In fact, despite hitting all the uk bike parks, and spending the summer in the Alps, i’ve had a total of zero punctures. That makes my rides very low stress indeed. In fact, all i now do is spend the time waiting for my buddies to fix their punctures… 😉

Then lets take the suspension. I have a 180mm Lyrik on the front with a custom tune, and a X2, again with a custom tune on the back, and the is no doubt what so ever, that when the going gets rough, this bike just walks away from anything but a full on DH bike. You are more than welcome to come along and see if you can keep up on say a 140mm bike with bargain basement suspension btw.

Then lets take the Di2 – yes it’s fairly small difference, but there are two major advantages for me. 1) Pack the bike into it’s bike bag for overseas travel and i simply disconnect and remove the rear derailure. At my destination it plugs back into place and all the gears work without any adjustment. And without a pull cable that gets full of mud, it stays working in our terrible muddy winters. Then in Les Arcs last summer i bashed the derailure on a large rock, and the automatic protection system kicked in, and saved the unit from damage. One press of a button and it reset and off we went again. On a conventional unit that would have been the end of my day.

Add in the Saint brakes with XTR levers for low finger loads for all day braking comfort, the 1by extended range transmission for low faff and high ground clearance, the 170mm dropper to allow me to really move about on the bike, the strong stiff wheels and this makes the bike fast, everywhere, up or down.

Now, i’m not saying someone else can’t go faster than me, of course they can, i’m not Richie Rude after all, but for ME, riding MY bike, the 7k bike is significantly faster, easier to ride, safer to ride and more fun to ride than a £2k bike.

So do you need a 7k bike, no of course not, but is a 7k bike better than a 2k one, HECK YEAH! 😆

As the owner of a reasonably expensive bike (so appreciate the irony in me saying this) but there is an awful lot of purchase justification going on 🙂

I’m under no illusion that I could probably go just as quick on a two grand out of the box Capra as I could on my previous, similar travel bike which probably cost retail 3 times as much.

I didn’t/don’t want a Capra though, so I don’t ride one. I’m not going to try & justify my bike being ‘quicker’ though, just because it’s got some fancier components on it.

Then lets take the suspension. I have a 180mm Lyrik on the front with a custom tune, and a X2, again with a custom tune on the back, and the is no doubt what so ever, that when the going gets rough, this bike just walks away from anything but a full on DH bike. You are more than welcome to come along and see if you can keep up on say a 140mm bike with bargain basement suspension btw.

I’d take you up on that, got a friend with a 2 grand Jeffsey who is a total pinner, i’m sure he’d lend it to me, or probably have a go himself….

The thing is Max, it’s the geometry and suspension tune that counts – all of which you can get than the crazy money that you spent on that Mondraker. If you’re into really long and slack, there are other cheaper options like Pole – even the Geometron.

If you had all the same geometry numbers on the 7k wonder bike then I’d wager it would be quicker (or a bit nicer to ride) in the same pair of reasonably competent hands. How much quicker will vary.

Some of the Giant EWS team have been running Alumnium Anthems this year at Rotura, that I have been told – is for feel reasons.

Again, carbon doesn’t automatically make it better – you can make a bad expensive carbon bike that lacks contact patch feel.

There is a reason why Moto GP teams seem to have given up on carbon frames and gone back to twin spar aluminium frames for the time being.

even the Geometron

? Weren’t the full builds like £7K??? It’s £200 just to find out if you like it or not!

You’re just kidding yourself if you believe that. The extra 5% must make all the difference when you’re wobbling around the outside of a 10ft double as you are too scared to hit it, along with 99% of the other riders on here.

A 10ft double is the last place you need a fancy bike – a rigid dirt jump bike costing peanuts will fly just as well as a £10k carbon superbike. But a sequence of steep rocky drops and chutes and turns under a less than brilliant pilot will show the benefit of something with great geometry and suspension – and if you want it to feel fast on flatter or uphill stuff you might like it to be light too, and that gets expensive.

Some of the Giant EWS team have been running Alumnium Anthems this year at Rotura, that I have been told – is for feel reasons.

Again, carbon doesn’t automatically make it better – you can make a bad expensive carbon bike that lacks contact patch feel.
So giant have managed to cock up the carbon frame? Be interesting to see who is on the alu next weekend then. Most of what I saw from the footage though was all carbon. Cash is the only reason I’m going alu next weekend, I’d love to shave some weight off the bike and have it stiffer.

Long story short, these bikes and frames exist. People buy them, the ones to watch out for are the ones who make up their judgements based on what somebody is riding. Next up are those with a laminated list of excuses about how if the bike was….. Different it would all be much faster.

Tom_W1987
The thing is Max, it’s the geometry and suspension tune that counts

Not if you want to be quick UP and DOWN.

And that’s the thing, you can make a cheap bike do one thing well. A slack, but heavy frame is going to be ok down hill, but a pig up hill. Expensive bikes are expensive because they manage the up/down compromise better! It’s the old pick one from cheap / good / Robust thing again!

You could easily get an older DH bike, that would be faster than my Dune downhill, no doubt about it, but i’m going to enjoy watching you pedal it back up again 😆

Modern ‘Enduro’ bikes are amazing because to a large degree they are do it all, or at least, have nicely compromised on a set of attributes that make them fit a lot of riding. No, you aren’t going to win an actual DH race, or an actual XC race for that matter, on one, but for everything else, they are very good indeed. Unfortunately, that wide based capability costs money…..