Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)
  • HOW MUCH ? !!!!
  • Brianblessed
    Free Member

    the past couple of years has seen some obsene price rises in our beloved sport. bikes, components, clothing etc have all gone through the roof price wise. a mid range full suss that cost @£1800 a couple of years ago is now nearer £3000 ! and the top range bikes are often seen at 5 to 6 grand and above!! there are rear mechs in the shops for £150. tyres can be seen at £50 and a serious rider can go through 2 or 3 a year. these are just a few examples. mountainbikers are a dedicated bunch on the whole and are willing to go without a pint or two so we could have that extra bling new bit of kit on our bike, hell, we even fib to the wife about how much it cost ( go on, admit it, she’s not reading this 😉 ). how long can the mtb market sustain such prices and what does the future hold when riders find they cant afford to run decent kit any more…

    faz083
    Free Member

    I’m guessing you’re in the ‘older’ generation? perhaps you’ve not heard of inflation? got to explain some of it.

    ojom
    Free Member

    You can buy excellent kit at lower prices though. Example – Genesis Core 26.2 at £699 is mentally good.

    All goods in any market exist at various quality levels.

    You don’t have to spend heaps if you don’t want to.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    FarmersChoice
    Free Member

    Patience is the key as bargains come up quite frequently. It’s taken me a year to build my 29er but I have saved about £600.

    I do take your point though, seems to have gone through the roof of late.

    Brianblessed
    Free Member

    is it cheaper if your younger ?

    northernrick
    Free Member

    its happened to every leisure pass time accross the board mate. nothing unique to cycling at all.
    i have a few hobbies and all have seen huge price rises for equipment.
    its a case of making the most out of peoples obsessions i guess.
    no ethics, but good business!

    crikey
    Free Member

    Didn’t you get the e-mail?

    Mountain biking has gone, along with the rest of cycling, middle class.

    That basically means that the people who do it can be sold any amount of tat at exorbitant prices because they are buying into the dream.

    It’s not about the doing, it’s about the being seen to be about to do.

    postierich
    Free Member

    never missed a pint to buy bling!!

    faz083
    Free Member

    is it cheaper if your younger ?

    yes? because you don’t remember a mid range bike ever being £1800?

    vondally
    Free Member

    it was expensive back then in 1991 for top gear same today BUT the md price stuff is so good light and durable it is the best buy

    ajantom
    Full Member

    Yes, but why buy new when you can buy cheaply second-hand off those who do 😆

    tony24
    Free Member

    Depends how you look at it i mean the slx groupset is fantastic for the money and carbon frames for £250… Some manufacturers are silly prices but then part of the cost is the name. Some of cube, canyon rose bikes etc are great bits of kit for the money

    Brianblessed
    Free Member

    some good points. maybe its just that theres so much more choice ‘nowadays’ ?

    sillyoldman
    Full Member

    2 or 3 tyres in a year?! Well blow me.

    Have you noticed that other goods have raised in price too?

    Thing is though, we’re back where we were 15 years ago in terms of capability/bang for buck.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    Canny buying is the key. In the last 5-6 years I don’t think I’ve spent more than £25 on a pair of tyres for instance. I just avoid the ‘latest thing’ and keep an eye out for those who MUST have it selling off bits for peanuts.
    My current main bike, a C456, has cost me under £1300. The wheels and forks alone would be £900 absolute minimum at full price. Most of it I bought new but the used bits are impossible to spot.

    Having a nice bike for cheap can be done if you have patience and a bit of skill.

    But yeah, there are some utter loons paying £50 for a tyre and £130 for flat pedals!

    EDIT
    The wheels and forks above cost me about £470, all brand spanking new apart from the rear hub:
    150mm 15mm Maxle Revelation RLTs
    DT Swiss 240s hubs DT DB spokes, Mavic 717s
    The rear hub alone is what? £230+ RRP?

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    when I first picked up a halfords catalogue wayy back in ’97 an XTR mech was £127 IIRC.

    I might have completely made that up but it certainly rings a bell, anyone got RRP’s going back that far?

    I don’t think bike’s have gotten much more expensive over the years, certainly not much over inflation, but there has been a boom in higher end bikes. 5 years ago almost all bikes were alloy, now you open MBR and get bombarded with carbon £5k bikes, but if you can live with the same bikes we were buying 5 years ago then they’re still as good as they always were.

    A giant trance X5 is probably a big step up from a giant VT2 for almost precisely the same money, the X4 is probably a big step up again in spec for the same cost adjusted for inflation. If you want the X1 it’s there, but it’s not necessary.

    mr_stru
    Full Member

    It’s not really all that more expensive. I seem to recall paying 250 quid for a set of Rock Shox Quadras way back in the early 90’s which a random internet inflation calculator tells me is 400 quid in today’s money. These days you can get a set of forks for 200 quid ( http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=70299 ) that I imagine[0] work way better, in as much as they’ll work in winter for a start 🙂

    Same goes for my first decent bike: 500 quid for a rockhopper in 1990 which is about a grand in today’s money. You can get a nice bike for that that’s pretty much the equivalent sort of thing.

    More recently, 40 quid for an X7 rear mech in 2005 from chainreaction, still 40 quid now.

    So yes, in absolute terms it’s more expensive but not in real terms.

    [0] I say imagine only as I’ve never tried the marzocchis in question but as I still have the Quadras the Marzocchis would need to be terrible to be worse.

    Brianblessed
    Free Member

    or maybe its that prices are going up whilst my earnings are going down ?

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    and £130 for flat pedals!

    My name is spoon and I have a pedal fetish.

    It all started in 2004 with a set of V8’s, but I quickly went astray and bought some time atacs. Then in 2008 I was tempted by some Burgtech Penthouse Flat MK2’s for £150 and have ridden them ever since. Then last year I decided to try these thin pedals everyone was going on about, especially as they’re now half the weight of the burgtechs. So I bought some octane1 flats, they were shit. So I thought about some on-one thinny’s, then they sold out in 5 minutes. So I spent a few weeks sulking before buying some Da-Bomb Bare Bones pedals for £80 which appear to be the same pedals, but with even more material drilled out, haven’t tried them yet, and I suspect I’m going to be disappointed compared to the burgtechs, the lesson is probably that £160 pedals are worth it!

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    Inflation has obviously played a part, but we got absolutely done over when things kicked off in 2008 as the pound sank against the Yen and the Dollar. Have Shimano prices been affected by the tsunami in Japan last year does anyone know?

    juan
    Free Member

    What the international shop up here says.
    Back in the day if you wanted a rocky moutain switch frame it would cost you 1500 Frs (that is around 2300 € or back in the same days 1500 of your british currency).
    Now 2300 € buy you :
    A brand nex commencal meta 55 (1800 €)
    A brand new scott spark team (1999€)
    A brand new kona tanuki deluxe.

    So a lot more than what you could have in 2002.
    A fox flux helmet is 84€, is you get a short it’s 79€ with a 3D padding, a jersey is 39€ (both from FOX) and a pair of glove 25€.

    So I am not sure we’re having a worst deal than what we had last century.

    ahwiles
    Free Member

    if you’ve convinced yourself that you need a santa-cruz/orange/specialized/trek, then yes, mountain bikes can get expensive.

    mostly, i guess, to help pay for the advertising/sponsorship.

    if you think you’ll probably be just as happy on a rose/canyon/vitus there are some real bargains to be had.

    i’d love a specialized carbon camber (29er – obviously), but i haven’t got £3000.

    so i’ll probably get a Rose Dr Z. i bet they’re ace.

    choice, it’s great.

    there’s so much good stuff at the sensible end of the market, that the brands we’re comfortable are almost forced to pitch their stuff at the ‘aspirational’ end of the scale.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    the lesson is probably that £160 pedals are worth it!

    Nahh. Not even close. It’s all in your mind. There’s no reason thinner pedals should cost much more. I’ve got some v8s which have had a right battering, but if they broke I’d just put on the wellgo v8 copies I have hanging around in a drawer. And there would be no difference at all.

    It’s all in your mind! 😉

    northernrick
    Free Member

    the real bargains are to be had in the (slightly) older kit. i mean, has technology really sent yesterdays top bikes to the dump? no!

    ive got a superlight and a slayer. both packed with xtr-hope etc and the pair owe me less than a grand. both my bikes are better than i am so spending more would be silly.
    if your not making your living by riding, whats the point in having the most expensive stuff anyway?
    i know the answer to the last question btw 🙂

    butcher
    Full Member

    Completely agree with buying ‘sensible’ kit. It’s interesting, there does seem to be an influx of 5 and 6k bikes of late, which is mad pricing. What happens when you smash it into a rock on your second ride? Aside from crying, that is.

    But for most of us, who don’t really have the fitness or skills, or needs to make use of the weight savings from a 6k bike (or even a 3 bike), it’s really not a necessity. More of a nice to have. A nice to ave that offers no real advantages other than knowing you own a really nice bike. A really nice bike that will provide additional stress and potentially hamper your enjoyment….unless of course money isn’t a big deal.

    Plenty of nice bikes for less money. And some of the budget offerings are great. Old kit works as well as the new stuff when well maintained…all the rest is just marketing guff.

    One thing that concerns me though, are the people who genuinely can’t afford it. Young kids mainly. It’s not good for getting people into cycling when you’re constantly told by the mainstream media that you need to spend 1k+ just to get started. How many years would you have to save your dinner money from school to get that? I once spent almost a year eating nothing but bread and milk (at school) to buy a guitar, and that was only £200.

    Unfortunately a lot of things are marketed towards the middle classes because tat’s were the money’s at.

    Or do we just perceive that because we have become them?

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    I agree, the prices now are rediculous. People still buy the products though!

    But if you’re sly and know your onions, you can just hoover up all the decent second hand goods. You’ve got to devote 2 to 3 hours a day scouring the classifieds and ebay to spot second hand bargains though, but when you see them, buy them!

    The trick is to buy anything thats at a good price. If you need the item then all well and good, but if you dont require it, its easy to sell on at a profit anyway.

    I have my smart phone set to auto refresh the classifieds page every 5 minutes so I can check it when Im out on the go. You’ve got to be quick to get a bargain.

    A little motto for you “The early bird catches the worm!”

    brooess
    Free Member

    prices also stayed pretty level for most of the noughties so kind of just catching up

    back in the day when I bought my first bike, steel rockhopper with rigid forks, cantis and cheese for chainrings was £400. You get way better than that for £400 now

    but yes, top end prices seem to have gone silly. Which is fine, let the MAMILs overpay for top end kit while we get the mid-range at more sensible prices

    james
    Free Member

    There does seem to have been a lot of price rise since mid 2008 when you could (briefly) get XT shadow mechs for £30, SLX cranks for £65, XT for ~£88 from CRC/merlin

    I suspect ‘quantitive easing’/printing money has something to do with price rises amongst other factors

    “seem to be an influx of 5 and 6k bikes of late”
    I seem to think there were £4/5k bikes 4/5 years ago too though? Its the £8/9k+ top end race bikes that look pricey
    you could get Fox/fox/LX level FS bikes for £1500 then from Spesh/Trek/etc. Now its what £2300ish?
    Granted Canyon/others are cheaper but you’re not able to get them through your LBS?

    rogerthecat
    Free Member

    Mr Blessed, if you think new kit is expensive, pop over to RetroBike and see how much old kit is selling for, we now have a classic MTB scene!!

    grum
    Free Member

    Stuff like YT Industries still seems like reasonable value.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Nahh. Not even close. It’s all in your mind. There’s no reason thinner pedals should cost much more. I’ve got some v8s which have had a right battering, but if they broke I’d just put on the wellgo v8 copies I have hanging around in a drawer. And there would be no difference at all.

    It’s all in your mind!

    Probably, there probably are flat pedals just as good as the burgtechs, I’ve just not found them yet.

    The Da Bombs are going back to CRC as the pins and pedal bodies had corroded together so the threads crumbled away when I undid them! Might have been a one off as it was only 2/3 of the pins on one of the pedals, but for £80 I wasn’t expecting to be thread locking them myself in the first place!

    I think I might wait and see what the Mk4 burgtechs look like, they do seem to have nailed the grip and bearing longevity (4 years without a squeak now), the weight came down a lot for the mk3 so hopefully the 4’s will be thin too.

    you could get Fox/fox/LX level FS bikes for £1500 then from Spesh/Trek/etc. Now its what £2300ish?

    I disagree, I bought my pitch (OK, so pretty much every component has failed in one way or another, but they were all supposed to be good components, but must have been a friday afternoon bike!) which was a pretty good spec for £1400 12 months ago.

    I think a lot of it is peoples expectations, they see £4k/£5k/£6k+ bikes and think they should have one, or at least somethign higher up the range than the basic model, so they get blinkered to the cheaper bikes. That and people naturally progress up the price ranges over time, either through higher disposable incomes or a desire for something nicer. So I bought my first MTB in 2000 for £275, and my current bike is probably 10x that, the bikes aren’t 10x more expensive, but the amount I’m spending on them is.

    You can still get a rockhoper for £400, and when you include inflation the fact that it’s significantly better (and cheaper in real terms) than the same bike 5 years ago is pretty amazing.

    monkeycmonkeydo
    Free Member

    The Voodoo Zobop is £1300 at the moment.Incredible value for the spec.Oh the joys of Halfords

    johnnystorm
    Full Member

    I remember a time when a Ringlé seat skewer was something like £30. In the intervening 20 years I can get something from superstar every bit as good for a fiver delivered. Seeing as I’m no longer on £8.20 a week as a paper boy things are considerably cheaper taking inflation into account. My Claud Butler Pagan was £300 in 1990. 200GS, rigid steel & weighed 32lbs. Things are definitely better now!

    johnnystorm
    Full Member

    I also think that if I worked out how much my spare time was worth to me & how much my hourly rate is that David Taylforth’s shopping techniques would work out incredibly expensive compared to paying RRP! 😉

    weeksy
    Full Member

    Just buy 12 months old bikes.

    I saved £350 on my Giant TXC29er.

    My Bionicon i paid £1300 for …. RRP was £2599.

    There are bargains out there…. just just don’t need to buy the latest kit.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    I disagree, I bought my pitch (OK, so pretty much every component has failed in one way or another, but they were all supposed to be good components, but must have been a friday afternoon bike!) which was a pretty good spec for £1400 12 months ago.

    I bought my Pitch for £999 in 2009.
    It now wears coil Lyriks that cost me £30 (yes thirty!) after a but if trading, a £29 Cane Creek 110 heardset, Hope hubs on SUN rims that cost under £100 (under £40 if you include the sale of the OE ones) the back one is brand new.
    The High Rolllers were under 20 for the pair, the Magura Louises were expensive at about £120 the set in about 2007 though, but that’s only Deore money really…… The drivetrain, stem and seatpost are all OE l, the saddle was £15 and the wider bars about the same.

    If I broke it up and sold it, I’d virtually get my money back.
    Like I said, a bit of skill and persistence gets a nice bike for little money. The Lyriks weren’t even for sale. I just asked the owner if I could buy them! 🙂

    EDIT
    Yep. My forks were 1/4 of the price of your pedals. 🙂

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    In 1997 Petrol cost 58p/l in 2004 when I got my first proper frame it was 78p/l now it’s 135p/l

    Things have gone up shockingly (I know petrol has tax etc to add to it)

    Vat has increased

    The £ is a shockingly worthless currency out there in the world where things are made (even the might orange bikes have to buy the raw materials from somewhere)

    This Specialized http://www.specializedconceptstore.co.uk/Detail/12sjfsr/stumpjumper%20fsr/Stumpjumper%20FSR%20Comp%20Carbon
    is £2800 with a nice looking spec (similar to some top end specs from 2004

    The high point is higher now – Carbon and the lot has seen to that the mid point is still there and still very good

    retro83
    Free Member

    everything across the board has gone up a fair amount but forks seem to have gone up massively. I recall the normal RRP being about £350 a few years back, now it’s more like £600 – £800.

    I’ve just started buying Deore level kit & OEM parts instead of the tarty stuff. Still works just as well for half the price.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    On the OEM subject a friend in the trade joked that Fox would sell a heap more forks if shops could buy at the OEM price…

    Nicknoxx
    Free Member

    I bought a 10 speed 531 framed Raleigh Record in 1975 for £57. In today’s money that’s about £500 which I’d say was about the same value for money.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)

The topic ‘HOW MUCH ? !!!!’ is closed to new replies.