Have you been priced out of biking?

If your salary is in the top 10% and you can’t afford 5k on a bike then what on earth are you pissing your money away on? Priorities, people!

There’s a lot of metrics to feed into any of this, such as household income, kids, area, etc, so i wouldn’t be saying just because you earn in the top 10% you should have readily available income to get a bike, i know a couple of poor sods who have talented kids who cost a fortune for lessons, trips, etc in sports, he’d probably want them to take up biking to save money!

he’d probably want them to take up biking to save money!

This is not the way to wealth!

Here’s a comparison.

The last brand new MTB I bought was in 2013/14, it was an On One 45650b. 2×10 Deore, Sektor gold forks, Reverb dropper. I paid £1150 for it IIRC.

Today, PX / On One typically punt out the Scandal or Big Dog with a low end but functional spec, for around the £1k mark.

They’re doing the Hello Dave, iirc with GX eagle, pikes and a reverb for £1450 until tomorrow

Yeah hardtsils are great VFM, better than ever. Just not FS.

Top 10% of household income level, in UK 2021, was £80,000+.

They’re doing the Hello Dave, iirc with GX eagle, pikes and a reverb for £1450 until tomorrow

Well according to the bank of England £1150 in 2013 was £1402 in 2021.

As I said earlier in the thread. It’s not about the bikes, it’s about life, world events and priorities.

In 2012 or 13 an insurance payout of around £2200 gave me a few options of 26″ full sus with slx level parts, lyriks (with mission control damper) and decent shock if my memory serves me correctly.
Current standards would put that in a £4k+ category.

Top 10% of household income level, in UK 2021, was £80,000+.

Are you sure?
That’s a lot lower than I’d have expected
.
I tried to Google it and failed dismally.

Top 10% of household income level, in UK 2021, was £80,000+.

Are you sure?
That’s a lot lower than I’d have expected
.
I tried to Google it and failed dismally.

According to this data the 90th percentile in the 2018/19 tax year was £56,200 before tax. It’s a shame they don’t have more recent statistics.

I’ve put it into a google sheet for easy viewing.

“ Are you sure?
That’s a lot lower than I’d have expected”

Most vaguely well-off people think they’re far less wealthy than they actually are. This is one of the main reasons that inequality is increasing – the tax system is completely broken as no party dares levy fair taxes on those with more money.

In 2012 or 13 an insurance payout of around £2200 gave me a few options of 26″ full sus with slx level parts, lyriks (with mission control damper) and decent shock if my memory serves me correctly.

So about £2,700 in today’s money?

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mountain-bikes/trail-bikes/spectral/27-5/spectral-27.5-al-6/3184.html

That’s £2,500 with better components (yes modern Deore is better than ten year old SLX, and those brakes are brilliant, I run them) and one of those new dropper post contraptions that push up the price of today’s bike that little bit more.

That’s a lot lower than I’d have expected

Well off people don’t appreciate how most people live.

“I’d like to call out Labour as liars. I am one of the people he will tax more”

This audience member, who earns over £80,000, criticises the taxation promises in the Labour Party manifesto. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/jKJtz2QlqL

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) November 21, 2019

That’s priceless! Actually, it’s got a price and it’s not a lot – about £80K.

I find it hard to appreciate that someone on above £80K, which would by definition make you quite astute you would have thought, would be so unaware where their wage sat in the grand scheme of things. I guess it could be a mean/median/modal average confusion maybe. At one point in that he doubted he was in the top 50%!

You haven’t seen his car threads, have you?

If he chooses to spend more on cars than bikes, well that’s his problem right there.

Ride what you enjoy and can justify. My MTB is nearly 8 years old and I didn’t get it new. The last bike I got brand new was the roadie and that was through the Cycle To Work scheme so is comparatively budget compared to others. That’s cool though. I love them both.

Am I ‘priced out’ of biking? No.

If you ride big bike park lines you’re likely to have an expensive bike. Riding bikes in the woods can be a really simple thing though.
I’ve said it before here – I don’t have any more fun on my bike now than I did when I was riding a £160 Raleigh or a £500 Marin in the later 80s and early 90s*. Rigid bikes and rim brakes and no-one knew any better. Yes there have been improvements since then but no we don’t need them all.

£500 then is £1200 bike now. £1200 for a CrMo frame and fork with rim brakes. Bikes can be better value than they were then. Yet the bike industry has successfully complicated, marketed and obsolesced its way into riders thinking a packed feature-list £4-6k bike is what’s right for group rides at the weekend. It’s not wrong.. but it’s far from essential.

*Edit, yeah I know “get a decent bike now then!” ..set myself up : )

Can’t believe no one has mentioned being forced into more cycling by rising prices

All depends what transport you use I suppose. I drive a car that does 60mpg so petrol increasing is not noticeable to me and it is certainly not going to change my method of getting to work to cycling as it won’t most people who are spending £3K+ on bikes.

Just to point out, 90th percentile is household income of £80k+, individuals it’s the £56k linked to by @appltd.

As ever, many people are a lot wealthier than they they think and don’t see the realities of what a lot of people live off financially.

All this talk of amazing bikes for £2.5-£4k, I’m wealthier than average by a fair margin, but I can’t / won’t afford that.

I think it’s easy to complain about cassettes, but I’ve just looked at XT chainsets and they’re about £125. They’ve been that price for literally decades now.

Second hand is the way forward. I’ve only ever bought two bikes new. Now I keep a bike until I fancy a change and then sell it and use the fund’s for something else. Treated myself last year to a new frame and some nice wheels then built a bike over a few months from a mixture of used and new bits. Came in over budget but that always happens. After selling the previous bike it cost me about £600

Cycling is accessible, Bicycles are aspirational, don’t confuse the two op.

The bike that £2.5k bought 10 years ago may have been mid to high end of a manufacturers range, whereas now its much lower down probably. I’d argue that they both perform the same for any given measurable though (weight, ride comfort, longevity etc).It just wont have the same model rear mech. Technology and manufacturing techniques have moved on at such a pace that the trickle down of ‘quality’ components is impresive. Deore 1×12 groupset and brakes? one of the best on the market imho!

But does it matter? If it doesnt, buy what you can afford/justify and enjoy a bike that is probably better than anything on the market 10/15 years ago that wasnt at the bleeding edge of tech (and budget).

If it does matter what rear mech you have on your bike, well, give up now. You’ll never win the arms race to buy the newest/most expensive thing out there so give up trying so hard.

As for rear cassettes as a measure of value, its doing more heavy lifting now than in the 3x and 2x era, of course it will be more expensive. Manufacturers have effectively moved the front rings onto the cassette, so we’re still paying for them. As mentioned above, the only real change currently is the lack of bargains/sales on day to day kit, supply still cant keep up with demand and wont for a while yet.

9-10 years ago I worked in an LBS. £2200 got you a full suss Saracen Ariel with an alu frame, fixed seatpost and Acera 2×9 speed gears (deore rear mech). Nice bike, rode well, but not mid to high end.

That guy on QT is priceless. The mind boggles how he landed a job paying north of £80k.
The weird thing is that he did have z glimmer of sense when he started ranting about (m)billionaires, but only a bit. And he’s probably the sort of cretin who thinks IHT is bad as well.

I will say in defense of 12 speed is that unlike 8/9/10 speed you don’t have to change cassettes chains and so on every 12 month to stop the whole thing grinding itself into dust. They last much much longer than stuff of a decade ago. And overall I think bikes have become better, the components on them by and large are fit for purpose, they aren’t beefed up roadie stuff anymore, frames are better, and even basic forks are light years ahead of what used to be offered at premium prices.

And bike prices have been made for ages now, It’s been at least 20 years since the first 5 or 6 figure MTBs were released and they still sell out, so some-ones buying them.

If your salary is in the top 10% and you can’t afford 5k on a bike then what on earth are you pissing your money away on? Priorities, people!

And thats it right how much do you priorities bike stuff. Im not in the 10% but earn a good salary we don’t have kids and riding bikes is pretty much all I do so I save and miss the odd holiday with my wife for it. Although it seems more expensive but I think changing a bike every few years does make it cheaper I just got a rolling frame set and am going to swap my drivetrain over.

I will say in defense of 12 speed is that unlike 8/9/10 speed you don’t have to change cassettes chains and so on every 12 month to stop the whole thing grinding itself into dust.

How does that work?

Is it just better materials or is there something in the design?

I hope you don’t think it was me claiming to be poor whilst being in te top 10%. I posted that to demonstrate that despite earning a lot now (wasn’t always the case) and being a keen cyclist I am still not in the market for high end bikes.

Certainly the prices we’ve become accustomed too are now much higher on average.

I need a new pair of road shifters – Shimano ones (105) are nearly £200 a pair. Or I could pay silly money on eBay for a tatty pair. I just can’t justify that so I’ll be going down the Ali express route and trying the sensah shifters.

Ultimately it’s not a big deal. If you can’t have ultegra but only 105 or tiagra, you can’t have xt but only deore – does it really matter? It’s only bikes.

Is it just better materials or is there something in the design?

Honestly I don’t really know, but yes, materials better design all play their part. I do know that my last 12 speed chain and cassette lasted 3 years and was really still useable after nearly 6000km. Yes it was harder to get the cable tension and really smooth shifts but I’m pretty sure I could’ve wrestled another years use out of it. chain wasn’t even at 0.75 and that was a mix of GX, and XO1. It’s very impressive

It would be interesting to see like for like (as far as possible given supply restrictions) sales figures at these new on average higher prices. Perhaps the market will accept these higher prices longer term.

As mentioned earlier some complete bike specs just don’t add up price wise considering everything is oem. It used to be way more expensive option to assemble your own custom build, but I reckon with the help of a few sale bargains I could easily beat a few companies with equivalent if not better parts.

I hope you don’t think it was me claiming to be poor whilst being in te top 10%. I posted that to demonstrate that despite earning a lot now (wasn’t always the case) and being a keen cyclist I am still not in the market for high end bikes.

don’t you know, being a higher rate taxpayer puts you firmly in the high roller bracket.

or at least able to afford a high roller…

6 figure MTBs

Got a link? Reckon I’d struggle to commit north of 100k into a single bike.

I hope you don’t think it was me claiming to be poor whilst being in te top 10%. I posted that to demonstrate that despite earning a lot now (wasn’t always the case) and being a keen cyclist I am still not in the market for high end bikes.

I read it as intended by you

But I do have a solution

“eat the rich”

I’m going down the 2nd hand route for my “new” bike. Trying to get it all bought and working before the energy price hikes. My last new new bike was a PX FreeRanger on cyclescheme which works great with slicks on as well so I’m getting rid of my road bike now and just keeping the two bikes.

Do you remember that immensely naff Gold plated Muddy Fox Courier?

( still only 5 figures though)

It used to be way more expensive option to assemble your own custom build

Was it? I mean, maybe, but there is always a pile of stuff you get rid of at the earliest opportunity on a pre-built so you have to cost that in as well.

i’ve seen someone on an older hardtail with standard seatpost doing BPW before, i doubt they were hitting many of the black trails!

Why do you doubt that? Do you think ability is proportional to the depth of the riders pockets?

Never been to BPW but having seen some videos I’d probably be happy hitting some of those blacks on a hardtail and I’m by no means a riding god, it is nothing more than a big BMX track. I did the Naughty Northumbrian on a DMR Trailstar LT with 130mm revs and a 90mm stem and I’ve done Fort William DH on similar.

Why would you need a dropper at a bike park anyway?

There was a gold fatbike that’s doing the rounds in the emirates, that is 7 figures though. And not sold out, oddly.

Never been to BPW but having seen some videos I’d probably be happy hitting some of those blacks on a hardtail and I’m by no means a riding god, it is nothing more than a big BMX track

LOL yeah…. ummmmm errrrrm. Sure.

BMX blue 🙂