Nice bicycles are stupid expensive.

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: NaOH


So, brake pads aren't actually contacting with anything? wtf?

You bought a bike to go fast. Why do you want to slow it down? :^P

 

[thescreensavers]

I got my mountain bike for $120 its one of the store built ones. I took it to a bike shop a few months later they rebuilt the bike and re-oiled shit for like 20 bucks and the bike was completely different in a good way. But I haven't used my bike in like a year so its sitting the garage.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Lulz, this thread is awesome.

I'm a pretty casual rider, but I bought a Kona Jake a couple months ago. For $950, it's pretty sweet - drop handlebars, aluminum frame, etc. Weighs maybe a 1/3 of what my old clunker does (which I still use to commute to the gym).

It's amazing how much faster the Jake is and how much more easily I can go up hills.

Like most other products, bikes follow a law of diminishing returns. You can do basic stuff with a basic product. Spend a bit more and you get a lot more. Spend a LOT more and you get only a bit more in return.

As a comparison, think of the $400 PC that's only good for Internet and office work vs. the $1000 gaming PC that plays most games well vs. the $3000 beast of a machine that gets you only an extra 5 FPS at 1920x1080.

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: Beanie46

Originally posted by: Gibson486

yes they are. $600 bikes usually have $200-250 worth of profit.

No they don't. Ever sold bicycles? Ever bought them wholesale from, say Trek or anyone else?

Thought not.....

Markup on bicycles is incredibly low......top end bicycles, those in the high four figure range, do indeed have 20%-25% markups, but low end bicycles, those under $500 have markups in the 12%-15% range. A $600 bicycle will cost the shop like $500 or more, before shipping costs. Those $250 cheapie bikes in the shop will have wholesale prices of like $150-$175, before shipping, and the shop pays for shipping, always.

(How do I know? Husband worked/was manager of a bicycle shop for approx. 7 years....sold Trek, Lightspeed, Gary Fisher, Klein, Cannondale, Schwinn, Giant, among other brands.)

When people talk about markup, they are not usually specifying retail markup.

Just because the wholesaler charged you $500 for a bike doesn't mean the bike itself cost $500 to make.

Just look at how many car dealers are willing to sell cars for $50 over invoice, or *gasp*, less than invoice. Because the wholesale invoice price is MEANINGLESS and has nothing to do with the cost to build the car. You can see how plainly obvious this is when a car manufacturer offers $6000 rebates on cars which results in them sell way under invoice.

I'd expect the bike market or the market for any other product sold to be the same.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: Beanie46

Originally posted by: Gibson486

yes they are. $600 bikes usually have $200-250 worth of profit.

No they don't. Ever sold bicycles? Ever bought them wholesale from, say Trek or anyone else?

Thought not.....

Markup on bicycles is incredibly low......top end bicycles, those in the high four figure range, do indeed have 20%-25% markups, but low end bicycles, those under $500 have markups in the 12%-15% range. A $600 bicycle will cost the shop like $500 or more, before shipping costs. Those $250 cheapie bikes in the shop will have wholesale prices of like $150-$175, before shipping, and the shop pays for shipping, always.

(How do I know? Husband worked/was manager of a bicycle shop for approx. 7 years....sold Trek, Lightspeed, Gary Fisher, Klein, Cannondale, Schwinn, Giant, among other brands.)

When people talk about markup, they are not usually specifying retail markup.

Just because the wholesaler charged you $500 for a bike doesn't mean the bike itself cost $500 to make.

Just look at how many car dealers are willing to sell cars for $50 over invoice, or *gasp*, less than invoice. Because the wholesale invoice price is MEANINGLESS and has nothing to do with the cost to build the car. You can see how plainly obvious this is when a car manufacturer offers $6000 rebates on cars which results in them sell way under invoice.

I'd expect the bike market or the market for any other product sold to be the same.

Selling a car is very different.

Invoice really IS invoice-to the dealership. The dealership is privately owned.

The reasons they do that are manufacturer incentives. Either direct cash to the customer or through incentives to the dealerships based on quotas.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
I just paid $420 for my bike. Honestly, I never imagined that I'd spend that much on a bike, but decent ones cost that much now. If you spend more than 1k on a bike, you are a serious biker. You ar probably the type that does Pan Mass or something. What really gets me are people who spends over $600 on a commuter/hybrid or those single speed bikes....

Why man? Is this an elitest thing? I paid £650 for my F1000 Lefty that was worth the best part of £1200 and it has upgraded Hope brakes on. I want a nice bike to ride on my 10minute commute. It has most definately paid for itself in the 3yrs I've had it now. No parking fees and it rides beautifully.

Originally posted by: CraigRT

Originally posted by: Riceninja
yeah, i know ppl making 40k a year that blow 2000 on a bike. i lol'd hard. like dude...you're barely paying the rent.

I love how people just don't get other people and their interests ever.. I'm a student, I have almost no money, but I make sure to have a nice bike because it's my #1 interest and my favorite thing to do with my time, bar none.. Cycling is my life..

my income, less than $20k/year, mountain bike, ~$3000ish (CAD)

AT'ers are very quick to judge how other people spend 'their' money...I'll bloody well drop £50 on a torch if I want to

Koing

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers
I got my mountain bike for $120 its one of the store built ones. I took it to a bike shop a few months later they rebuilt the bike and re-oiled shit for like 20 bucks and the bike was completely different in a good way. But I haven't used my bike in like a year so its sitting the garage.

$20? That's a steal. Most will charge a full tune-up price which will be $40+ easy.

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: GrantMeThePower
Selling a car is very different.

Invoice really IS invoice-to the dealership. The dealership is privately owned.

The reasons they do that are manufacturer incentives. Either direct cash to the customer or through incentives to the dealerships based on quotas.

I'm not trying to debate that. The point is, the invoice is already marked up. The dealer markup is just additional markup on top of the marked up invoice.

Bike wholesaler selling a bike at $500 (which is already marked up from the manufacturing cost), and then the bike retail shop marking it up 12% more, doesn't mean the total markup is 12%.

Lets say a farmer can grow an apple for $.10 The farmer sells the apples to Billy for $.25 each, and Billy sells the apples to Bobby for $.50, and Bobby sells the apples to Sue for $1 each.

Sue only marked up the price from Bobby by 5%, from $1 to $1.05

Does that mean there isn't much markup on the apple? No, it doesn't really mean anything. I don't care if it's Sue or Billy or Bobby doing the markup, I just care about how much markup there is total.

 

[evident]

i rode on a $50 kmart huffy across oahu.

that being said, i love my $300 fuji hybrid bike!!!!

 

[RadioHead84]

It has been pretty much covered but I'll pop in here just cause I love bikes.

I have an entry level road bike. If you want any kind of good road bike its going to start at 650. If you have never been on a road bike, then you don't know what the difference is between a cruiser from wallmart and gliding across the road.

As others have stated...you can get a good bike for 1000...but with anything it is diminishing returns as you keep paying for more.

I think a lot goes into making a well built bike that justifies it's cost. Also, they hold their value for a pretty good amount of time.

The bikes that annoy me are the hipster single gear bikes that are all around the city. I know it looks cool and fits into your style of lifestyle, but many hipsters are all about being cheap, drinking pbr and such, so a 600 dollar bike does not really fit into that picture. Why a single gear bike?? You are gimping yourself so much by just having one gear its just silly. The only reason I can think of that would make anyone want to buy a single geared bike is because they are easy to fix...but getting your biked tuned once a year is pretty cheap, and if you know anything about bikes you can do it yourself no problem.

Fixed gear is another story cause you can really cruise on those...

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: RadioHead84
You are gimping yourself so much by just having one gear its just silly. The only reason I can think of that would make anyone want to buy a single geared bike is because they are easy to fix...

Single gear is perfectly acceptable for city use. If I lived in the city, I'd ride the ugliest, toughest bike I could find. I'd expect to come in from a day of cobbles, curbs, and potholes the same as when I left.

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: RadioHead84
It has been pretty much covered but I'll pop in here just cause I love bikes.

I have an entry level road bike. If you want any kind of good road bike its going to start at 650. If you have never been on a road bike, then you don't know what the difference is between a cruiser from wallmart and gliding across the road.

As others have stated...you can get a good bike for 1000...but with anything it is diminishing returns as you keep paying for more.

I think a lot goes into making a well built bike that justifies it's cost. Also, they hold their value for a pretty good amount of time.

The bikes that annoy me are the hipster single gear bikes that are all around the city. I know it looks cool and fits into your style of lifestyle, but many hipsters are all about being cheap, drinking pbr and such, so a 600 dollar bike does not really fit into that picture. Why a single gear bike?? You are gimping yourself so much by just having one gear its just silly. The only reason I can think of that would make anyone want to buy a single geared bike is because they are easy to fix...but getting your biked tuned once a year is pretty cheap, and if you know anything about bikes you can do it yourself no problem.

Fixed gear is another story cause you can really cruise on those...

I don't really get the whole fixed gear fad. It's just as gimped as a single speed, but using your knees to resist all the time will really tear them up. Also, half the people I see ride them can't handle the fact that you can't stop pedaling and get scared to go too fast =/. It's also a bitch to have in a city that has a lot of hills. I've ridden one and feel like this thing is meant to be constantly moving, and fast. Not for the hipsters that wear skinny pants and install only one aero wheel in the front to cruise around.

For the lower maintenance reasoning, I've seen rusted up multi-geared bikes that still worked. If you can take care of a car, a bike should be cake.

 

[MiniDoom]

I ride fixed. where i live NoVA there aren't enough hills to justify the need to gear down. if I'm hauling a lot of shit, i use my geared cx bike. even when I do group rides or races I usually leave my ti road bike home and take my track bike. at 85 gear inches it's damn fast. I aint no hipster either.

 

[RichUK]

Nice cars are stupidly expensive.

Wait? we already knew that.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Riceninja
yeah, i know ppl making 40k a year that blow 2000 on a bike. i lol'd hard. like dude...you're barely paying the rent.

$40K isn't bad---unless you're living somewhere stupid like New York or LA. Around here, you can live quite nicely on $40K/year.

Anyway, I spent $800 on a Giant hybrid bike (1/2 off road/1/2 comfort bike). You can sure tell the difference in a well made bike. Pedals don't bend, gears shift smoothly, you can fine tune everything. They even added ergonomic grips to the handlebars made of squishy rubber to prevent wrist injuries. I like it If you're into cycling, then spend $2000. You probably spend that much a year on fast food.

 

[RadioHead84]

Originally posted by: rdubbz420
I ride fixed. where i live NoVA there aren't enough hills to justify the need to gear down. if I'm hauling a lot of shit, i use my geared cx bike. even when I do group rides or races I usually leave my ti road bike home and take my track bike. at 85 gear inches it's damn fast. I aint no hipster either.

Err sorry..notice in the rest of the paragraph I wrote I said single gear. there is a difference. Fixed gear does have merit in a flat terrain. Single gear does not have the benefits of a fixed gear.

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: kalrith
Bicycle prices have skyrocketed over the past few years. If you compare the price of a top-of-the-line Trek mountain bike today to what the price of a top-of-the-line Trek mountain bike was 4 years ago, it's about double. My mountain bike was $600 in 1995, and I've put about $1,000 more into it (shock; clipless pedals; nice wheels; and most-recently having to replace the brakes, brake levers, and shifters). I'd say it's been well worth the money, but I wouldn't say the same thing about a lot of the high-end bikes today.

LOL, no. Four years ago, the top of the line was still $10,000.

That's odd. According to Trek's current website the Top Fuel full-suspension mountain bike has an MSRP of $7,150, whereas according to the Wayback Machine the Top Fuel full-suspension mountain bike was $3,850 in January 2005.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: kalrith

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: kalrith
Bicycle prices have skyrocketed over the past few years. If you compare the price of a top-of-the-line Trek mountain bike today to what the price of a top-of-the-line Trek mountain bike was 4 years ago, it's about double. My mountain bike was $600 in 1995, and I've put about $1,000 more into it (shock; clipless pedals; nice wheels; and most-recently having to replace the brakes, brake levers, and shifters). I'd say it's been well worth the money, but I wouldn't say the same thing about a lot of the high-end bikes today.

LOL, no. Four years ago, the top of the line was still $10,000.

That's odd. According to Trek's current website the Top Fuel full-suspension mountain bike has an MSRP of $7,150, whereas according to the Wayback Machine the Top Fuel full-suspension mountain bike was $3,850 in January 2005.

Except that you're comparing two different bikes. It did go up in price, but only to $4949.99

 

[mooncancook]

I remember spending $100 on a decent bike seat alone, that already costs more than a complete walmart bike. You can also rant about those tiny RC car hop-up parts, they are ridiculously expensive too

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
As a comparison, think of the $400 PC that's only good for Internet and office work vs. the $1000 gaming PC that plays most games well vs. the $3000 beast of a machine that gets you only an extra 5 FPS at 1920x1080.

My $400 PC can play most games very well.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: PieIsAwesome

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
As a comparison, think of the $400 PC that's only good for Internet and office work vs. the $1000 gaming PC that plays most games well vs. the $3000 beast of a machine that gets you only an extra 5 FPS at 1920x1080.

My $400 PC can play most games very well.

Not anything from the last 2 years. :roll:

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: PieIsAwesome

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
As a comparison, think of the $400 PC that's only good for Internet and office work vs. the $1000 gaming PC that plays most games well vs. the $3000 beast of a machine that gets you only an extra 5 FPS at 1920x1080.

My $400 PC can play most games very well.

Not anything from the last 2 years. :roll:

e5200@3.75ghz 4GB DDR2 and 4830- it most definitely can.

 

[AAjax]

I bought my Kestrel off of Ebay, no need to suffer the depreciation when there are many nice bikes for sale that have hardly been ridden.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: PieIsAwesome

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: PieIsAwesome

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
As a comparison, think of the $400 PC that's only good for Internet and office work vs. the $1000 gaming PC that plays most games well vs. the $3000 beast of a machine that gets you only an extra 5 FPS at 1920x1080.

My $400 PC can play most games very well.

Not anything from the last 2 years. :roll:

e5200@3.75ghz 4GB DDR2 and 4830- it most definitely can.

Keep thinking that.

 

[Revolution09]

You can buy a Civic or a Lamborghini... Same with anything...