Have you been priced out of biking?

I’m not finding anything I can afford. Prices for good bikes have always been high but they are just a joke now.
I can’t justify the £ with everything else getting more expensive. So I probably won’t get a next bike, so I’ll probably ride less. Or maybe not ride more frequently.
Anyone else feeling like they’ve been priced out of this very fun sport?
Or is everyone an oligarch?

Just bought what is probably my last brand new bike. The 2nd new bike in 32 years. Loads of 2nd hand affordable quality stuff around.

Not yet. Bit there’s always a way.

When I was marginally younger but tremendously poorer I rode mainly single speed on local trails

That is a very cheap way to get a fix.

I understand the sentiment, but if you have a bike you can ride…

I’m lucky enough to have a pretty much ‘on trend’ bike, but I do also still have bikes from ten and twenty years ago. If I didn’t have my modern bike, I could still ride everything I do on it using the older ones, just a bit slower and scarier…

Specialised still do a hardtail for about a grand. Always a good starting point if on a tight budget. That’s about the ticket price for entry these days… if you want something that can be ridden hard with no upgrading or additions.

EDIT: Oh, you already have a bike. Ride that. Everything has gone up in price since you bought it, not just bikes.

That’s the point.
Over (plenty) of years I built up to good spec bikes, love riding them. Call em the XT general spec. Could afford them.
Now I can’t stay at the level I’m accustomed too. I’d have to downgrade to entry level on a new one, which isn’t in stock anyway. Or convince the seller of a used one that my lowball offer is actually mediumball.

One thing the pandemic has proven is that desperate consumers will climb over each other to purchase at any price.

The wankiest **** are real!

‘Entry level’ spec stuff now is as good as, if not better than the premium stuff of yesteryear. Maybe not as flashy, but functionally bang on.

I’m lucky to be in a position to be able to get fancy stuff but if all that disappeared, I’d have no issue riding entry level, as it’s all pretty brilliant, especially compared to the stuff I rode when starting out.

Whatever you are riding now is fine,it’s the same amount of fun as it always was.
Have I been priced out of biking? Yes and no. I still have a few perfectly good bikes,between six nd fourteen years old but they all work fine, and i will continue to ride them as they are lot of fun. The thing I will probably have to think harder about is travelling to far flung places as often to ride them,that is getting pretty expensive. But stop riding? No. I have a bike and will ride it here.

i have 2 bikes that i love that were not expensive (both titanium a ht and road bike). the ti bike cost me about £2500 in 2018 all in and the road bike cost £1800 that i bought last year. both bikes have good components fitted to them (slx 11 speed,hope enduro wheels 27.5,rockshox yari fork. the road bike full sram force 11 groupset/rim brakes and fulcrum wheels).

i am not rich at all and paid them both off in instalments but i don’t plan on changing/px them for any new bike tbh.

the only bike i would like to buy now would be a ss road bike of some sort sometime in the future.

Buying an entire new bike? Yes.*

However, upgrading over time, then getting a new frame and swapping stuff over is much more doable. Obviously there may be compatibility issues but it generally works pretty well unless you want a big change like wheel size or fork travel

*Interest free credit may be an option

There’s quite few things going on, I get where the OP is coming from.

– The High end has got higher, broader and more out of reach for average punters.
– Entry level proper bikes have got objectively better in terms of suspension, brakes and handling for sure.

It’s quite a well known problem that people often judge how well they’re doing relative to others rather than in an objective sense. So the fact that your bike rides better than your 15 year old one – that doesn’t help with the feeling you’ve gone from premium to budget.

This isn’t just a bike phenomenon – there has been a great divergence in most consumer goods. Look at anything from flour to coffee to cars. Say premium cars used to 3x budget you now have premium cars which are 150x budget. Previously Nescafe was premium over mellow birds now you have bio single origin kopi kuwak hand roasted for sale in your local Waitrose. Meanwhile, generally the budget options gave got better but now drinking aldi coffee beans makes you practically a neanderthal.

It is a genuine problem as while life may be getting objectively better it doesn’t feel that way for a lot of people as the “good stuff” slips out of view.

My last full sus bike was top end with virtually no room for meaningful upgrades. I replaced it with functional spec (was XTR, now Deore. carbon bars to alu) and I can’t really tell a big difference. As has been said, value bikes are better than they’ve ever been.

I would also say that building your own bike up from parts and taking your time to do it will save lot. There are bargains to be had but you need patience, if you want a new bike now then you’ll have to pay for it but if you’re willing to take a year or so collecting the parts then you will find some great deals.

Nope – just bought a new Ti hardtail with an absolutely top flight spec (XTR, King, etc) for less than £2500.

I hear you OP.
The prices are getting silly, not just new bike but replacement things like tyres, brake pads abd cleaner.
I’ve a 5 year old hardtail.
I buy a lot of sale items, running kit instead of riding kit, I buy even more second hand. I buy cleaning kit in 5l tubs intended for motorbikes from eBay.
I’m a whizz at maintaining everything I can for ourselves (YouTube vids ftw).
Unfortunately this means my LBS sees less of me than they did.
I’ve also discovered that road & gravel are way, way cheaper…

Now I can’t stay at the level I’m accustomed too.

That comment makes you sound entitled. Can’t get a new XT level bike to replace your current bike so will ride less – seriously?

I have never even owned an XT level bike (as I am a tight arse rather than can’t afford one) yet riding is my main activity by far. You will soon get used to it as Deore is plenty good enough.

Not yet, but getting close.

For me, it’s not just the price, it’s the justification for paying that much which is becoming harder and harder.

For several reasons (this being one of them) I’m increasingly finding myself running over riding.

2hand stuff for me!

Of the  bikes in the garage one frame was new, the rest were second hand.

Most recent bike is 5 years old. It was unbelievabley unmarked. There is no way I’d pay for the new version either then or the current version.

What’s wrong with your current bike? I rode one hardtail for 15 years and one full suss for 12. Current full suss is 5 years old

I picked a price point I’m comfortable with a long time back and stick to it. I prob get less bike for that now but don’t think it’s lessened my enjoyment. It has contributed to me heading more to gravel riding though to keep cost/complexity lower. And I certainly travel less and do fewer events due to costs in all areas.

However it is prob pricing my wife out. I can justify spending for myself because it gets well used, but she rides infrequently and won’t want to spend the money needed for a reasonable entry level bike now that is still pleasant to ride.

Specialised still do a hardtail for about a grand. Always a good starting point if on a tight budget.

I have a nice hard tail bike now but if I had to start from scratch there’s no way I could afford to buy a £1k bike.

The last full bike I bought was a Specialized Pitch Pro full suss with Pikes and decent kit for £1050. Ok I know that was what, 10 years ago, but a similar bike now would be £2.5 – £3k? You can’t explain that price hike purely with inflation.

Interesting one and in many ways yes, in terms of spending £2-5k on a bike is not family priority so therefore I have a 2013 26” bike with **** suspension, obsolete wheels etc etc

That comment makes you sound entitled. Can’t get a new XT level bike to replace your current bike so will ride less – seriously?

Some people can’t tell / don’t care about nice tools and that’s great but for a lot of people nice kit is part of the sport. Not really entitled as such it’s just that kit is a huge part of cycling, always has been.

Always has been for me, so I’ve gone second hand and discount/sale parts and managed to build up some great bikes. My latest bike brand new would cost about £11k which I would never pay.

It’s a tricky one. I actually don’t think that like for like you’re getting less bike for your money compared with 10 years ago.

However, that’s if you’re comparing RRPs.

10 years ago, if I needed a new part I would go to CRC, sort by discount, and find something that was 70% to 80% off RRP.

I don’t think the issue is with RRPs. I think the issue is that the discounts people used to rely on aren’t there anymore.

people nice kit is part of the spor

It’s never been a better time to adapt to the fact that the sport of riding your bike is riding your bike – not standing next to it.

The lower end groupsets have moved on so much the gap between the good (mechanical) stuff and lower end has closed dramatically.

Why does one need a new bike to keep riding?

Edit – already been answered

Why does one need a new bike to keep riding?

Stolen?
Broken?
So many parts worn out/broken it’s not worth replacing them all?
Obsolete standards you can’t get parts for?

Tomd’s post is excellent.

I have a 2016 105 rim brake road bike. I saved hard through the pandemic with the aim of buying a disc brake bike this yeah but guess what, it’s to cost me £3000 for the equivalent bike, so essentially £3k for a set of disc brakes. No thanks.

I’ve no doubt 105 today is better than 2016, but I did feel I wanted to “upgrade” to Ultegra – another £600 on top.

Maybe Tom his point I’m too materialistic, but with my cheap MTB having SLX and the race bike with GX, selling both for a Deore shod Trail FS feels like going backward.

I’ve pretty much always been priced out of new biking; the only new bike I’ve bought in the last 8 years was a Ti gravel bike for £1300 4 years ago for my 50th birthday, which has since done nearly £20k kms, so I’ve had my money’s worth.

I’ve recently put together a lovely steel FS frame with a mix of nearly new, used and transferred parts … Pikes/Hunt/SLX/XT … for around £1700, but having sold 2 other bikes, a net cost of £300/400.

My SS 29er HT was also put together around used parts and frame, and was itself the donor of some parts to the FS bike.

Fortunately, there are plenty of people around who are not priced out of the new bike market, that allow people like me to put together some lovely bikes on a much more modest budget.

Priced out of crashing, maybe.

I’ve no doubt 105 today is better than 2016, but I did feel I wanted to “upgrade” to Ultegra – another £600 on top.

Marketers wet dream.

Priced out of everything! Can’t quite get my head around energy prices 😐

The prices are getting silly, not just new bike but replacement things like tyres, brake pads abd cleaner.

I bought a BB the other day. £30. The exact same one cost me £15 a couple of years ago. In fact pretty much every BB I’ve ever bought has been £15 (give or take). That’s a doubling in price, in 2 years.

It’s not limited to BBs either. Refreshing your drive train feels like buying a new bike, in financial terms.

I don’t really get the sentiment of the OP, in that you need good stuff to ride a bike. But I am finding it increasingly difficult to justify replacing stuff on existing bikes, with even the cheapest components.

Buy second hand and don’t get upgraditis.  Its a very cheap hobby if you want it to be.  Up until buying my new bike this year I spent l around a hundred or two a year on bikes and bits on average,   Old bikes bought second hand and kept for years kept going with second hand parts and maintained by me.  I don’t care that the bikes are old and not on trend – they are still fun to ride

Have to say, I broadly agree with OP.

My ‘new bike’ is 8 years old and has pretty much obsolete standards – as such it has a finite life. [edit it might actually be 10yr or older actually]

Recently my wife an I were away and we hired a pair of Ebikes for the day. Was a great day out and had a lot of fun. When we got back to the cottage, had a google to see how much it would cost to buy a pair – basically no change from £10k. I’ll repeat that – TEN THOUSAND POUNDS!! So the option is either a pair of bicycles for my wife and I or 5+ years worth of holidays & weekends away…

Needless to say I can’t see me replacing my bike when it dies.

Running a 2004 Cotic Soul. Everything obsolete standards, when its been upgraded I’ve passed parts down to the kids bike.

I don’t know what your budget is, but for example you can buy a Whyte T130 for <£1000

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224872055571?hash=item345b6b4313:g:x9sAAOSwjoxh2w6f

Which in terms of bang for buck of a decent FS, well it’s far from terrible.

I bought a BB the other day. £30. The exact same one cost me £15 a couple of years ago. In fact pretty much every BB I’ve ever bought has been £15 (give or take). That’s a doubling in price, in 2 years.

i bet the RRP was close to £30 all that time. You just got used to CRC etc selling grey market stock for less than your LBS could buy it trade.

I’ll repeat that – TEN THOUSAND POUNDS!!

Oof. You could, almost, get a nice regular mountain bike for that.

Yes I feel like I’m being made to walk the plank to fall and drown in the BSO sea!

So recently started to learn how to repair my own wheels using DIY stand and dish tool.

Repaired a 135qr for the rigid commuter. Will need to rebuild a 142×12 wheel for my nice 11 speed hardtail.

Gone single speed on the commuter, but might transfer to 1×10 taken from the knackered 2012 full sus. If it isn’t too far gone that is.