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I didn't read the whole story because it wanted me to subscribe or sign in.
That said, the idea of a bicycle for twenty grand sounds absurd to me. So does one over five grand of so. I'm a long-time sth!Eye and familiar with how spendy some quality athletic equipment can be, but I still am of the opinion that the crazy high prices of all things cycling, Including clothing and accessories, is one of the biggest consumer frauds ever perpetrated on the American people. I can buy a killer motorcycle for six grand. LOL.
I'm waiting for the day a pro cyclist comes out and admits he can do just as well racing a good one thousand dollar bike as one of those fifteen thousand dollar frauds.
one of the main rules of economics, "charge what the traffic will bear."
i have been in wholesale and retail all my life and what different items and brands will sell for, continues to surprise me at times. cost has little effect on pricing in so many areas of merchandise.
So how much better is the $20k bike than the $10k than the $6k than the $3k. It sounds like spending 15% of that price gets you a very nice bike.
I was a bike mechanic when I was younger. I also raced off-road in the WORS and D1 at school.
Since I worked at a shop, I was able to purchase bikes cheaper than the owner of the shop. All manufacturers had this deal for employees.
I still have the bikes I purchased all those years ago. They are fantastic. Dura-Ace and XTR just keep going and going. There is newer tech out there but these 15-20 year old bikes can easily be raced today. The electronic shifting on new higher end bikes is fast and awesome but it isn't needed.
Most folks would be just fine and dandy on a $1000 bike. There's incredible value in that price point nowadays and they will last for years compared to the crap sold at Walmart/Target. Unless you are serious about racing, there isn't a huge advantage to the higher price points. The higher priced bikes certainly have advantages but for the casual cyclist, it's not a great value.
I just bought my first fat bike at my LBS. 2 years free maintenance. Not likely that I will need it due to the higher quality of bikes a LBS sells (plus professional building of the bike), but it's there if I want it.
My old 2006 CF Cervelo Soloist with CF Zipp 404's will still hold up today... I bought it / put all parts together from various eBay buys - totaled around $5600. It's worth about $9000 if parts were bought at bike shops. When I ride around in it, gee, people think I got Money! Some people like impressions anyway, and they say, "You have to know how to use the bike..."
But I'm equally happy riding my latest Novarra Cyclocross bike, even though it costs around $650.00!
Lance Armstrong wannabes. The same dime-a-dozen vermin who wouldn't dare leave the garage with anything more than a single layer of spandex sitting between their skin and the rest of the universe. (And who'll look at you like you just called them a communist or something because you're out riding with NORMAL clothes.) That, or probably some rich pasty-white hipster from Portland who's so much more concerned about "the scene" rather than getting place to place.
I remember those nuts from when I used to ride as a teenager(97ish-01ish). Me and my buds thought that it was hilarious that we where far faster than these loons on our after the holidays clearance specials paying $100-150 for $300 Mongoose mountain bikes at Wally World, and wearing out regular clothes.
The bikes had all the things that any non professional could want, trigger shifters, V-Brakes, frame and fork shocks, aluminum frames, 21 speed, etc. We would usually buy a new one every year and sell the old ones for near what we paid for them instead of having to do any maintenance.
All the expensive crap in the world won't make you any faster, building up your legs and cardio staying in top gear as much as possible, training with extra weights, learning how to down shift properly to save momentum, knowing when to stand for more torque, learning the lay of the land to know what routes will take less energy to ride even if they are longer etc.(What good is it to take the straightest route if it's almost all up grade if you are traveling 3 miles to go swimming if you will be too worn out to swim when you get there, when there is a less direct path through town that is almost completely flat?) All the things we did as kids specifically to outdo each other or to get around town as efficiently as possible.
So in three years, you've spent $300-$450 on throw away Walmart bikes. You'd still be riding the LBS bike today that you paid $300-$450 on.
Walmart bikes are junk that is assembled by unskilled cheap labor. Every LBS bike is assembled by somebody who knows what they are doing. The quality of the parts on those Walgooses is abysmal. Dual suspension $300 bikes are pure garbage. The "shocks" may go up and down but they have no effective damping.
People would bring those Walmart bikes into the shop frequently. Many were brand new. I usually just declined the bikes due to liability and cost. In order to ensure the bike was safe, I would have to do a full rebuild. It wasn't unusual to find no grease in the bearings, loose bolts, loose stems, pedals that were only hand tight, etc.
I can build a new bike in about 25 minutes including trying the wheels and a test ride. Going through a Walmart type bike takes about 90 minutes due to the hardware being of lower quality and not being designed for ease of adjustment (think nuts instead of hex bolts).
So in three years, you've spent $300-$450 on throw away Walmart bikes. You'd still be riding the LBS bike today that you paid $300-$450 on.
Walmart bikes are junk that is assembled by unskilled cheap labor. Every LBS bike is assembled by somebody who knows what they are doing. The quality of the parts on those Walgooses is abysmal. Dual suspension $300 bikes are pure garbage. The "shocks" may go up and down but they have no effective damping.
People would bring those Walmart bikes into the shop frequently. Many were brand new. I usually just declined the bikes due to liability and cost. In order to ensure the bike was safe, I would have to do a full rebuild. It wasn't unusual to find no grease in the bearings, loose bolts, loose stems, pedals that were only hand tight, etc.
I can build a new bike in about 25 minutes including trying the wheels and a test ride. Going through a Walmart type bike takes about 90 minutes due to the hardware being of lower quality and not being designed for ease of adjustment (think nuts instead of hex bolts).
Apparently you can't read, since we flipped the previous year's model for at least as much as what we paid for the replacements come the next summer. So in reality we either broke even or turned a small profit.
Build quality issues? These where good Mongoose mountain bikes, none of us ever had a problem with them in the least.
Who would trust a pre-assembled bike from anywhere, even a bike shop? Half an hour in the garage had the bikes ready for anything.
Wow, they must be such low quality that a bunch of untrained teenagers could have it stripped, regreassed and reassembled in less time than it takes you to find a wrench?
I remember those nuts from when I used to ride as a teenager(97ish-01ish). Me and my buds thought that it was hilarious that we where far faster than these loons on our after the holidays clearance specials paying $100-150 for $300 Mongoose mountain bikes at Wally World, and wearing out regular clothes.
Yes, it's pretty common for kids and young guys on their bikes to try to race someone they spotted on the trails. I used to see many of them ignore traffic lights in order to try to get ahead. It's pretty pathetic. The worst was the jerks who thought it was okay to draft on the back of strangers.
Apparently you can't read, since we flipped the previous year's model for at least as much as what we paid for the replacements come the next summer. So in reality we either broke even or turned a small profit.
Build quality issues? These where good Mongoose mountain bikes, none of us ever had a problem with them in the least.
Who would trust a pre-assembled bike from anywhere, even a bike shop? Half an hour in the garage had the bikes ready for anything.
Wow, they must be such low quality that a bunch of untrained teenagers could have it stripped, regreassed and reassembled in less time than it takes you to find a wrench?
Intok,
My bad. Still seems like a lot of work.
Back in the 70s/80s, Mongoose was a good brand. The mongoose sold in Walmart isn't the same. Hi-ten steel frames, stamped dropouts (not welded), bottom of the barrel components. They simply bought the name, not the quality. There's a reason Internet forums call it the Walgoose, now.
As to your wrenching skills, you were not going to get sued if you botched something on your lightning fast rebuild. We took our time to ensure the job was done right, not "good enough". The fact that you needed to strip and add lubrication to a brand new bike speaks volumes as to the lack of quality.
The vast majority of consumers trust pre-assembled bikes. Unfortunately that includes Toys-r-Us, Walmart, Target, etc. They had a prime time special on that very subject a few years back.
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