In my time close to the trade I can’t ever remember prices going up anywhere near as much so fast, And for what reason, is it shimano increase or Madison, maybe jumping on the brexit bandwagon to make a bit more money. Most distys in the trade are increasing but not as much as shimano which seems to be 20-50% across the range seeing a humble hg50 cassette going from 19.99 to 29.99, ultegra di2 rear mech from 179.99 to 229.99 di2 battery from 99.99 to 139.99.

Perhaps still cost effective to buy from ze germans then?

Are you saying it might be cheaper to trade with Europe?

Does seem like something else is going on as the price increases are greater than the currency drops.

The value of the Yen has been increasing for a year now. Stuff should be about 50% more than it was a year ago…

The Yen has gone up, the pound has tanked because of brexit. Welcome to the future.

Are you saying it might be cheaper to trade with Europe?

Are you saying that we should buy from europe if it’s cheaper than local bike shops? 😉 We won’t have a choice soon anyway, may as well make hay!

Hmm maybe time to stock up on spares!

Strong Yen weak pound and I imagine they are anticipating where the market will go for the next 12 months as they set their prices as well.

It’ll be like the good old days, the brexit haydays. We can open up the factory in Nottingham and all ride around in Raleigh’s with sturmey gears.

Baznav…how long have you been in the trade?

I remember 2009/10 maybe, all Shimano stuff rocketed overnight…SLX cranks up from £70-£80 to £120 over night…rear mechs XT up from £35 to £50 and XTR went crazy cranks from like £180 to £275-£300.

They’ll slowly creep back down.

Bet they won’t creep back down much…the 09/10 price hike was a knock-on of the 08 price hike in raw materials, the price of those then dropped again in 09/10, but Shimano’s prices didn’t as they needed to make back the money they ‘lost’ due to raw material costs being far higher…people got used to the higher prices so they didn’t drop.

I’m happy to accept cost of living and inflation adds to the cost of items, but the prices on a lot of kit is just eye wateringly extortionate – but there are enough people ‘happy’ enough to spend the money that the prices won’t drop.

Unless we all stop buying the Shimano stuff, the prices won’t creep back down…

Grumble over…

FWIW supplier’s we use have cited Brexit for price increases off at least 7% per kilo of chemical, doesn’t sound much but it makes a 20 kilo drum £10 dearer. Think importers are trying to make as much as possible before the market goes tits up and the full effects of Brexit are felt.

Has anyone ever paid full rrp on shimano 🙂

If it’s too pricey don’t buy then the prices go down 🙂

fourbanger – Member
It’ll be like the good old days, the brexit haydays. We can open up the factory in Nottingham and all ride around in Raleigh’s with sturmey gears.

Aren’t sturmey Archer owned by ‘sunrace’ you know, from Taiwan (I think)…
And Raleigh? Apparently owned by ‘Accell’… Who are Dutch.

Having said all that, and despite being very much a Remainer part of me is hoping that our rather isolationist stance in the world will see UK manufacturing, and home building, get a jump start. But TBH I’m skeptical that it actually will…

Japanese bicycle trinkets getting pricier will be the least of our worries soon enough.

If only there was an explanation…..
Good job the UK is now in control…

A Brexit was always going to massively increase the price of Shimano because it was obviously going to tank the pound and strengthen the Yen.

The Yen always strengthens when there is market turmoil, people put their money there because it is an ‘internal’ market so considered a safe haven. It perplexes me a bit why they don’t implement a mechanism to trade off their currency strength against their national debt.

I hedged my bets a bit by ordering some Shimano before the referendum. It arrived the day after the result and receiving a box of XTR was surprisingly consoling.

Perhaps still cost effective to buy from ze germans then?

Are you saying it might be cheaper to trade with Europe?

Are you saying that we should buy from europe if it’s cheaper than local bike shops? We won’t have a choice soon anyway, may as well make hay!

I think the idea was that SRAM will be more competitively priced than Shimano for the next couple of years.

I think the idea was that SRAM will be more competitively priced than Shimano for the next couple of years.

That would assume it’s made in europe and not traded in USD?

I think the idea was that SRAM will be more competitively priced than Shimano for the next couple of years.

That would assume it’s made in europe and not traded in USD?

You and I know that SRAM are headquartered in America but I thought maybe the poster was referring to them as ze Germans based on SRAMs buyout of Sachs/Truvativ etc.

It only matters where it’s made. The German thing I think was about the dirt cheap EU sites who managed to fluke the exchange rate game and get a lot of kit at a better exchange rate than the UK distributors (if your buying everything in a 1 month window for the year then it’s easy to get the wrong price)

Anyway, address your thank you notes to this lot

Having said all that, and despite being very much a Remainer part of me is hoping that our rather isolationist stance in the world will see UK manufacturing, and home building, get a jump start. But TBH I’m skeptical that it actually will…

What? Europe held back UK house building? That’s random.

Welcome to Brexit Britain.

The victorious pair look really happy…

Bet they’re thinking “****, how do we get out of this??”

What? Europe held back UK house building? That’s random.

Not sure why I feel compelled to comment and nothing to do with the topic or Brexit, but I get the impression that people believe more houses will make for cheaper houses. From what I can see, more houses built leads to more houses available to rent from the folk who have the money to amass a property portfolio

I can’t help but think that to get cheaper homes some changes need to be made to limit the number of houses available to rent, by which I mean a high percentage of houses must be owner occupied, the number of properties people can own for rental purposes must be limited and unoccupied properties that are not someone’s only property must be sold. Or, do it the old fashioned interventionist way and whack up interest rates.

Building houses does create jobs, though.

And the price of bike bits? Crazy. I love bike bits and the expensive ones are usually my favourite, but I’m not convinced I need them. It is a shame, as many have said before now, that old specs are faded out. I understand that no front mech means that designers are freed from the constraints they impose, but it would be good to know that multi-ring drive trains (with their less expensive cassettes and chains) will still be accommodated in future (quality) designs and the spare parts will be available. What is better for a leisure cyclist like me? A 7mm shorter chain stay or a cheaper wide ratio drivetrain?

My wife told the that I was in a grump this morning. I’m beginning to believe her.

My only surprise is that this is news to anyone. “cashing in on Brexit” ha ha, yeah good one.

Still, it’s not as bad as ’09 yet, I remember wincing and paying £70 for an XT Cassette, they’re only £54 on Wiggle at the moment (9sp v 11sp), with a tiny bit of inflation included.

It is a shame, as many have said before now, that old specs are faded out.

Spend 5 mins looking and you will find a 9sp triple groups etc for sale, 10sp deore is heap too, even six in double and triple flavour

LAT

Not sure why I feel compelled to comment and nothing to do with the topic or Brexit, but I get the impression that people believe more houses will make for cheaper houses. From what I can see, more houses built leads to more houses available to rent from the folk who have the money to amass a property portfolio

Not that I believe them, but our letting agent was bleating yesterday that because of the tax changes coming in April (you should take this one now) their are a lot less landlords about at the moment (so you should take this one now), and come April landlords will all be losing money so will either up rents (so you should take this one now) or sell up (so you should take this one now), before asking what we thought of the rough, flea ridden, last decorated in the 70’s ‘period property’ for £900 a month.

Not that I believe them,

I wouldn’t believe them. With fear of being branded a hypocrite, we rented our house out for 4 or so years while we were overseas. Every time I called the agent about an issue I was waiting for an answer to, her opening words were, “I was just about to call you.” Usually followed by, “I’ve not been able to get through to the tenants.” And I’m not sure what they were looking for when they inspected the property twice a year. Or perhaps the Inspectorer needs some training or maybe an eye test? Though I think it was simply integrity that was lacking.

In the time we were away every house in our street that was sold was sold for buy to let. A pair of new build houses round the corner that were posted as having been sold, were in the lettings listings before they were even finished! These are family houses, suitable for new/young families. What is the point of building new homes if private landlords are permitted to scoop them up?

Apologies for this tangent, I must be getting old.

What? Europe held back UK house building? That’s random.

No far from it, but seeing as we’re becoming a more inward looking country and we’ll soon no longer be able to blame Europe for all our social and economic issues, the UK will probably have to start addressing the fact that our manufacturing sector is hugely diminished, and we’re really not constructing enough housing (artificially increasing demand and driving prices up faster than incomes), dealing with those two very real issues could actually help make our economy more sustainable…

Add to that the liklihood that our “major economic activities” concentrated in the South East (managing Oligarch’s billions, flogging Sheikhs overvalued Kensington pads and helping globalised American businesses evade tax) could well ebb away as we exit the EU, and you start to realise we need to properly evaluate what the national goals and aspirations actually are and how we go about achieving them. I believe building new housing has to be part of it, it’s rather simple really…