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Bike Prices

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 19:11:39 No.1489272 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>1490066 >>1490100 >>1490122 >>1490131 >>1490166 >>1490512

Why are bikes so expensive now? Take the Vitus Mach 3 VRX for example. When it was brand new two years ago it was £700 but now it's £900! and it seems to be the same for most of the bikes I looked up. Should I wait until the prices go down before buying one or is this as good as gets?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 19:41:45 No.1489281 Report

Quoted By: >>1489374 >>1490131

Inflation, money devaluation

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 22:00:34 No.1489374 Report

Quoted By: >>1489380 >>1490118

>>1489281
barely this but it's what happens to anything when the technology in them becomes as advanced as bikes have. You can still buy any old Mongoose at walmart for 80USD, but for a specialized bike, with the high end joints, high end welding, skilled labor from the US, Japan, Europe, etc, and all the R&D that went into it, it's going to cost a lot more.

It's like wanting to drive a luxury car and asking why cars have gotten so expensive. They haven't. You can either get the Honda Civic, or the Benz.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 22:07:00 No.1489380 Report

Quoted By: >>1489383 >>1489440

>>1489374
>the R&D
this is the biggest inflator of price.
They're using the same workers and the same materials, they're just putting it together different and more efficient ways.
this keeps them making money hand over fist.
In the motorcycle world, dualsports are phenomenal value because they've been the same for 20 fucking years so the performance you get per dollar on the used market is absolutely insane.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 22:09:57 No.1489383 Report

Quoted By: >>1489396 >>1490094 >>1490102 >>1490126

>>1489380
Yes and no. I refuse to believe the welding on a 100 USD bike is near the same skill as those on bikes like Specialized and co. They use better labor, and that costs more.
But yeah on everything else.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 22:25:40 No.1489396 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489383
Better welding equipment costs too

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 23:45:55 No.1489440 Report

Quoted By: >>1490028

>>1489380
>hey're just putting it together different and more efficient ways.
except aside from dead end garbon and lmao 23 speed casettes bike technology in the last 20 years is largely stagnant.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 19 May 2020 23:50:07 No.1489441 Report

Quoted By: >>1489564

The first instinctive response for any dying business is to jack up prices to try and restore lost revenue. This only accelerates the decline of course, but it buys the execs more time to line up their new jobs.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 May 2020 05:07:45 No.1489564 Report

Quoted By: >>1489569 >>1489590

>>1489441
What are you talking about? We are in a bike boom, and have been for several years. The kung flu has caused an even bigger spike as of late. Shops and manufacturers are making money out the ass.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO (You).jpg, 83KiB, 801x419

Anonymous Wed 20 May 2020 06:02:52 No.1489569 Report

Quoted By: >>1489574

>>1489564

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 May 2020 06:13:41 No.1489574 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489569
Ok boomer

Velo Uber Alles

Velo Uber Alles Wed 20 May 2020 07:30:39 No.1489590 Report

Quoted By: >>1489597 >>1489886 >>1489969 >>1490121 >>1490132

>>1489564
More bikes sold, less money made. A few LBSes are doing great, lots are crashing and burning.

>Manufacturers
Mavic just went into receivership.
Dorel, which is one of the big 4 managed to lose a half million dollars while selling more product.
Raleigh and Fuji have fallen out of the main group. Fuji managed to take out Performance Bikes in the process, or vice versa.
Shimano is desperate for the direction it goes next, and it's not going to be "one more speed".

That said, there's new up and comers, The Fu brothers, Yolo. Or Yoelo. and Bosh. Peleton and Zwift if you count those.

But as far as OP's question, it's more likely weird fluctuations, or brexit freakout. Vitus is french.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 May 2020 07:46:31 No.1489597 Report

Quoted By: >>1489605

>>1489590
>Vitus is french.
I was pretty sure Wiggle bought Vitus. Wiggle is Brittish.

Velo Uber Alles

Velo Uber Alles Wed 20 May 2020 08:33:50 No.1489605 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489597
I stand corrected. Their HQ is still in france. I have no idea how them having a British parent might mess with the tarrifs, pricing. Are wiggle's other prices or the UK's prices stable? Everything is moving so fast it's hard to keep up.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 20 May 2020 22:42:59 No.1489886 Report

Quoted By: >>1490953

>>1489590
Shimano seems to have gotten completely rekt by SRAM in MTB and gravel, so I guess their big hope now is to dominate e-bike, even tho they're up against much bigger companies like Yamaha and Bosch.

I read a post on Weight Weenies that claimed that Campagnolo is doing well and I have no idea how the fuck that could be the case unless they have Apple-tier margins on their stuff or they're really a front for a Mafia drug smuggling operation and there's cocaine hiding in my Boras.

The retail side of things is a shitfest. LBSes are going broke, online breaks even on a good quarter. Yet the industry is growing. It doesn't make much sense that even the largest companies are practically in the same situation as Rivendell. Somehow, there's a lot of money being made, but nobody's making money.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 01:53:39 No.1489969 Report

Quoted By: >>1489977 >>1490034 >>1490038 >>1490135

>>1489590
>Shimano is desperate for the direction it goes next, and it's not going to be "one more speed".
the direction is in the op pic.
the metrea group is for "urban riding," so, road riding that isn't racing/training nor endurance/touring. the kind of builds we've been posting of our bikes over the last ~10 years has finally got a purpose built group, whether that's a good or bad thing. but obviously, that is the most robust direction cycling has taken now that off-road builds have been taken into as many niches as possible. cycling has gone full-circle back to what used to be served by Raleigh 3-speeds with northroads bars: transit-oriented riding. except now those bikes aren't heavy and slow anymore but built out of the stuff developed for racing during the last 40 years but molded into less aggressive postures. whether Metrea will be the magic bullet Shimano can make the money they need to make, I'm not sure.
I admit I like the look of the crank, but a big 42 on the double is courting pure noobs, and this is with 11x for the rear package. their so-called H bar is not an H at all but some fairly cool-looking bullhorns. the most interesting thing is the brifters that go with it. bar-end style bullhorn brake levers with shift paddles sticking further out. I'd like to try them, personally.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 02:16:25 No.1489977 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489969
Metrea was DOA. Nobody was asking for a "stylish" version of XT. I'm not sure if they even produced it for more than a year in 2016. The future of urban cyling more likely involves a STEPS middrive unit and an 8sp Alfine Di2 automatic transmission.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 05:28:40 No.1490028 Report

Quoted By: >>1490246

>>1489440
>lower rolling resistance tires
>better puncture protection
>pneumatic suspension
>hydraulic disc brakes even on roadbikes
>frames and forks designed to flex verticaly but to be stiff torsionaly
>power meters coming down in price
Sure, there totaly hasn't been any technological development since 2010...

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 06:05:58 No.1490034 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489969
>but a big 42 on the double is courting pure noobs,

according to shimano website it's 46-32T

46x11 is the same gear as 50x12
so it's like road gearing minus the very top gear

even 42x11 is almost 50x13
which is absolutely fine for bikes with non-aero riding positions.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 06:12:24 No.1490038 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489969
42x26 subcompacts are god tier. that or 44x28 are what meme bikes should be specced with

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 09:19:18 No.1490066 Report

Quoted By: >>1490068 >>1490171

>>1489272
>Why are bikes so expensive now?
Growing used market making every new bike sold targetting a prissy rich asshole or a niche because today's entry-level bike that goes unused is tomorrow's 300$ craigslist special.
Standards "updating" is doing this as well - attempts to kill square taper BB, upselling crappy ceramic bearings that don't even work on bikes, the attempts to kill 26" wheels with 27.5, using 29er and 650b to dup people who want to jUsT RiDe into only buying tires with that specific naming, consumable carbon frames and wheels, electronic shifting, removal of friction shifting options from shifters and no option for adjusting the pull ration to make it so you MUST use a SPECIFIC brand's shifter for THAT SPECIFIC rear, bouncing around between what's 'best' constantly, UCI rules changing all the time...

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 09:23:11 No.1490068 Report

Quoted By: >>1490072

>>1490066
go to bed grant

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 09:32:41 No.1490072 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490068
Grant sells garbage niche shit for prissy rich assholes. Dorel keeps making higher $ manufacturers sweat because they keep using their chinese labor to undercut everyone severely.
Manufacturing is improving to the degree that a classic welded gaspipe 10-speed built today would be so cheap that nobody would buy one out of the sheer "too good to be true" factor.
Because a 50$ noodle-thin non-fastback steel bike with only a 2x5 OPC BB and stem shifters would look shifty vs the 75$ MTBSOs, unreliable coaster-brake single speed heavy cruisers and bmx bikes in the under-100 range.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 10:47:10 No.1490094 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489383
Are many Specialized frames still made by Merida? Huge difference in price between the two brands.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:07:38 No.1490100 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489272
Ribble and Merlin UK are both selling a carbon bike under 1000 USD now.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:09:41 No.1490102 Report

Quoted By: >>1490112

>>1489383
>I refuse to believe the welding on a 100 USD bike is near the same skill as those on bikes like Specialized and co. They use better labor, and that costs more.
>But yeah on everything else.

Someone feel free to correct me here but I'm pretty sure that nearly all bikes are welded mechanically not by hand. Better brands probably have better quality control but that's a big assumption.

There's the 'stack of coins' weld you were taught in shop class and then there are hydroformed welds that are smoothed out.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:27:05 No.1490112 Report

Quoted By: >>1490124

>>1490102
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB54TQ2jQME

Not $100 though

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:36:05 No.1490118 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489374
OP is talking about the same exact bike getting more expensive. Your reply does not make sense in context, please fix your brain

Alia Nexis

Alia Nexis Thu 21 May 2020 11:44:50 No.1490121 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489590

I'm working at my LBS because I'm bored, and nobody else wants to work when the Canadian Gov't is paying them more than the shop can. Sales and repairs are great, but our (and the country's) issue is we're running out of $600-800 bikes to sell to people who just want to get out; won't be any new stock for a while.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:46:32 No.1490122 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489272
I think Vitus was specifically selling those bikes at or near cost to move inventory from Performancebike before bankruptcy. Now that they are bankrupt they are sticking to the prices that should probably be 10% off by this point in the season.

>>1489272
The really nice value seems to be with the build-to-order model companies. In the UK that means Planet X, Merlin, or Ribble. Im sure ones like this exist in the US but I haven't found one yet.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:48:38 No.1490123 Report

Quoted By: >>1490128

Taxes on Chinese imports.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:51:42 No.1490124 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490112
yeah that's for awesomesauce $3000 italian steel mamas that bend if anyone over 165lbs looks at them funny.

I'm curious what the difference between the welding on a $150 Huffy steel beach cruiser and a $1000 Marin Nicasio/Four Corners or Surly LHT or Salsa Vaya

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:52:20 No.1490126 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489383
Almost all metal frames buy all major brands are made in Taiwan by either Giant or Merida. The factories and the workers are the same. What a brand that hires Giant/Merida can do to set itself apart is to pay more for fancy stuff like smooth welds or better quality control.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:52:53 No.1490128 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490123
that was a big nothingburger. in addition to not going into effect it was only on the rolled finished steel and was by the pound and as we know a bike frame isn't exactly heavy.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:54:54 No.1490131 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489272
Less people are buying expensive, specialty bikes.

However, the people who buy bikes that aren't <200$ walmart specials in general are making more money than they were. As the sales numbers go down, businesses raise prices to compensate, and frame themselves as luxury brands.

>>1489281
>Inflation
US and Europe are entering aperiod of deflation actually.

The bike is more expensive because the group of people willing to spend 700 on that bike are just as willing to spend 900, because the alternative is some shitbike from walmart.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:55:04 No.1490132 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489590
The effect of Brexit on bike and component prices have been dire indeed.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 11:57:33 No.1490135 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489969
Metrea has been a commercial failure, mostly because of ridiculously high prices.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 12:59:35 No.1490166 Report

Quoted By: >>1490191 >>1490203 >>1490407

>>1489272
I don't know why cycling is such an expensive hobby. A £1000 guitar is a fucking good, near professional grade guitar, a £1000 road bike is 'entry level'.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 13:05:11 No.1490171 Report

Quoted By: >>1490296

>>1490066
>UCI rules changing all the time..
opinion discarded why do you even care about that shit?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 13:50:09 No.1490191 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490166
Boomers, its a sad reality, but most people who have a lot of time to ride recreationally are retired. And unfortunately the retirement plan for most millennials is going to be suicide.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 14:28:15 No.1490203 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490166
an 'entry level' road bike IS fucking good, and near professional level

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 15:35:52 No.1490246 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490028
tires are consumables and largely cost the same as they always did
pneumatics are nothing new
the only thing preventing you from putting mtb disc brakes onto a roadie in early 00s was component makers refusing to do so for arbitrary reasons
largely a feature of carbon which was specifically singled out as an exception
power meter was and still is dead weight

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 16:57:20 No.1490296 Report

Quoted By: >>1490407 >>1491044

>>1490171
I don't but a lot of cyclists are cargo cultists - the MAMIL type, grant-worshipper, and fixie hipster are examples. The latter two are in the market for boutique shit if they're buying new, most likely purchasing service from a bike shop instead of a bike. The former is the most likely to buy a new bike and care very much what "the pros are riding" because it's about LARPing as a TdF or PRoubaix rider.

Disc brakes on regular road bikes only became UCI-legal in 2015 and they were rare on true road bikes til then. Since tech is generally trickle-down to lower price points, shit will flow to lower price points from the top end gaining ground. This means that the UCI is an artificial bottleneck on a lot of road and CX bikes.
MTBs have less restrictions but they're still there, like no dropbars or drop-addons and some of the exceptions were only introduced recently (IE mullet bikes permitted in dh/enduro in 2019, ebike category added in 2020). However MTB competitions are less of an impact than for road on what people want to do and this correlates with how they've changed a lot over the past 20 years while road bikes stalled to shit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 21:29:01 No.1490407 Report

Quoted By: >>1490571

>>1490166
The industry desperately wants everyone to consoom next thing instead of selling them a decent bike that will last them decades. Which is why cycling seems expensive even though it doesn't have to be. That "entry level" road bike is pro-tier, as the stunt that Specialized did with having Peter Sagan ride an Allez in Australia last year proved. Above that price point, diminishing returns set in hard and you're chasing marginal gainz, mostly a little bit of aero that only matters if the course is mostly flat and you're riding alone, which is rare in non-TT races. You don't need shit like disc brakes for racing, either, and in fact they're more of a liability in a race due to rotor warping and fade, unless the race involves a huge descent in shit weather. The UCI were pressured by the industry into accepting disc brakes even though they were half-baked and require forks and rear triangles to be stiffened up to ass-shattering levels, leading to people buying rigid drop bar MTBs that can fit 42mm+ tires to compensate for the shit ride quality.
>>1490296
Slowing the rate of change is a good thing, otherwise you get the sort of memed obsolescence and proliferation of bullshit that has made MTB a consumer-unfriendly mess. Very friendly to manufacturers who have convinced everyone that they will be instagibbed if they don't have a $5000 Megavalanche rig to ride over a couple of rocks down a shitty hill.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 23:12:51 No.1490469 Report

Quoted By: >>1490470 >>1490472 >>1490512 >>1490873 >>1490875

Here's what I don't get. Both a $700 Made in Taiwan frame set, and the cheapo $100 frame set of a Walmart bike, are both hand welded correct?

If they are both hand welded, then how can there be such a massive price disparity between bicycle frame sets, even very simple frame sets with few braze ons, no fender eyelets, etc?

How much of that is just markup?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 23:14:57 No.1490470 Report

Quoted By: >>1490498

>>1490469
Wouldn’t they be machine welded?

Wouldn’t hand welding be more a small run, boutique process?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 21 May 2020 23:20:30 No.1490472 Report

Quoted By: >>1490512

>>1490469
presumably the bso is shit gas pipe steel and the other one is cromo etc? not sure. if you're talking aluminum, then I'm really not sure.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 May 2020 00:50:50 No.1490498 Report

Quoted By: >>1490815

>>1490470
I'm pretty sure most bike frames, even cheapo bike frames, are still hand welded.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 May 2020 02:03:28 No.1490512 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489272
Yeah, the prices have been creeping up over the years. The only sensible thing is to wait for a bike shop that has a model that's 1-2 years old, waiting to be sold. Or buy used, does having more than 10 rear gears matter?

>>1490469
Post two specific examples and we can say more. Otherwise see
>>1490472

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 May 2020 07:12:59 No.1490571 Report

Quoted By: >>1490851

>>1490407
the slow rate of change just means the same damn parts are given incompatible 'new standards' every couple of years instead of actually innovating. It takes the hobbyist disciplines like MTB and touring/gravel/JUSTRIDE crap to actually foster new ideas that push today's top end down. Innovating at the bottom end kills your product in most cases - see shimano positron, which is a fine ass idea and system (indexing IN THE DERAILLEUR itself!) but was put on department store bikes and had to meet that cost.

Walmart mountain bikes have tapered headsets and disc brakes now, thanks to crazy MTB innovation.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 May 2020 18:54:18 No.1490762 Report

Quoted By:

Don't forget that this whole wuhan virus thing has shot up prices both used and new. Apparently bicycling has become so popular during the lockdown that the stocks of some major bicycle chain store went up like 17%.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 22 May 2020 22:23:36 No.1490815 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490498
Fair enough. I just assumed hand welding would be the more expensive option. My bad.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 00:36:44 No.1490851 Report

Quoted By: >>1490872

>>1490571
I can't think of anything aside from the presshit BB retardation over the last decade that fits that description, and MTB has had that problem too, arguably worse. Some manufacturers do their own proprietary bullshit with headsets and whatnot, but that's even more true of MTB. gravelel/justride hasn't had any new ideas. All they're doing is reinventing the MTB. There was an article in some cycling rag recently written by a graveldork who was wondering, wait, why don't I just get a hardtail? Yes, exactly, get a fucking hardtail, put some semislicks on it, and you'll have something much better than your retarded hybrid.

Positron was made and marketed specifically for beginner cyclists on entry level bikes who were intimidated by that whole derailleur thing. An IGH does the same thing, and doesn't require a front freewheel and a bunch of fuckery at the rear to work. Because of the front freewheel, they to come up with a novel solution to the question of what happens when a shoelace gets jammed in the chain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39t1IxAPcg

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 01:23:39 No.1490872 Report

Quoted By: >>1490904

>>1490851
>>1490851
As an example, Shimano is notable in that they constantly patent new shit but then it vanishes without any product appearing - I assume this is because of either UCI demanding more bribes than they want to pay or because their other ideas get them more planned obsolecence. It's easier to just completely invalidate prior chaunrings with a new BCD standard, proprietary BB/cranks, proprietary cable pulls, non-mix and match electronic shifting within brand that has a finite life on the parts, ceramic bearings, RD hanger changes, proprietary headsets on carbon bikes and the numerous standards for headtube ODs, disc brake diameters, aero bottle cages, aero bar autism, the ratio of negative grams to price, stiff vs supple repeating every few years, MSRP of components individually way way higher than those sold ON a bike, elimination of friction shift options...

And positron was, to my knowledge, originally conceived as two seperate ideas - a pro RD, and the FFS for beginners. But they were combined into one system (often without the FFS and weird cogs) and put on low end bikes because it was thought to be less risky in the 70s than trying to make a way more precise, light and expensive one and then trying to convince pros already used to friction to adopt it. It flopped in each iteration - the og dual cable and solid core Positron II revision - due to being... really weird and with exposed mechanisms to get dirty. I have one, it's a piece of work but it had potential to expand into way more speeds at the rear without needing new shifters every time...

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 01:24:35 No.1490873 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490469
according to bob jackson this is one factor:
>Frames can be either Jig built or Free built. Jig built is best used for mass producing low cost frames, as it is the quickest way to produce a high volume in a short space of time. When built in a jig all the tube joins are done in one go and as the tubes are heated they expand, contracting when cooling down. Because this happens at different rates & each tube is clamped in a fixed position the frame becomes stressed & out of line. Once built the frame is then substantially tracked straight (a trade term for bent back in line). As a result a great deal of the latent strength & springiness of the tubing is lost forever.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 01:28:43 No.1490875 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490469
>At Bob Jackson Cycles we free build our frames for the following reasons: When building free a great deal of skill is required due to the fact that the frame is held at one place at a time, with guides allowing the tube being joined to expand along its length, whilst staying perfectly in line. Each join is then allowed to cool thoroughly so as to ensure there is no stress on the frame, hence the term. No tension building. Each join is done separately, from mitreing, to brazing, to cleaning & polishing, resulting in a frame that requires minimal or no tracking and uses the best qualities of the tubing, giving it that magical ride quality that only comes from a top quality steel frame.

>All steel tubes deteriorate if not heated correctly by between 5 & 15% dependant on the mix of metals in the tubeset. Savings of approximately 200F in temperature can be achieved by using silver braze rather than brass, this however is not cheap, silver braze costs 6 to 7 times more than brass.

tl:dr, significantly more time, skill, and expensive materials means you can build frame that are stronger (or lighter with better ride quality)

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 02:58:06 No.1490904 Report

Quoted By: >>1490981

>>1490872
Shimano is a R&D focused company and companies like that patent shit all the time, and typically no product is ever made from it. They do it in case it becomes useful in the future, or in case some other company does try it and has to pay licensing fees. All of the other things you mentioned are stuff that the UCI cheerfully allows. They're more concerned with the overall shape of the bike, keeping clip-on aerobars out of road racing, and sock length. I'm okay with all of that. Can you imagine what would happen if they allowed knee-high socks? Gross.

It would be neat to be able to upgrade indexed shifting systems with more speeds, but most people don't really upgrade much. Like, you could upgrade Campy 9sp shifters to 10sp by switching a spring, but I doubt that many people bothered to do that. It's been something I've been meaning to get around to on one of my bikes for over a decade now. Usually when it's time to put more cogs on the rear, they prefer to buy a whole new bike, and the industry is geared heavily towards facilitating that.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 06:59:28 No.1490953 Report

Quoted By:

>>1489886
>Somehow, there's a lot of money being made, but nobody's making money.
All revenue, no profit
Amazon was like this for years before notoriously making Jeff the richest man in the world

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 09:20:40 No.1490981 Report

Quoted By: >>1491033 >>1491681

>>1490904
>All of the other things you mentioned are stuff that the UCI cheerfully allows.
Yes, that's why I mentioned it. It's retarded spinning-in-place with muh marginal gainz.
I want to see more experimenting that has a chance of being more than a curiosity. Unfortunately the UCI has a major hold on cycling's image and is more about gentlemen's agreements (bribes) and 'the athleticism, not the tech.'
I hope the gravel faggots break this strangle on bikes because there is SO MUCH unexploited/explored territory that hasn't gotten traction because it violates the racefag dress code. A fucking terry bike setup of all things can't be legally raced at any sanctioned event (or one LARPing as such) but "woman's geometry" is apparently new, which means terry style bikes remain an obscurity that's going to die out when the creator's company folds.
The UCI operates under the assumption that the bicycle is already perfected and further changes just are polish on top.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 10:21:45 No.1491001 Report

Quoted By: >>1491042

Money making

Road bikes are all purchased by snooby middle class and upper class people, who don't mind paying more for a bike than an used car or even a new moto bike.

Same scam with all outdoor related activities and its "merchandise".

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 12:22:29 No.1491033 Report

Quoted By:

>>1490981
The only thing that makes me sad about gravelbois and their mini 46t rings is that they never get to feel whas t it is to go fast.

Road bikes on normal 25mm tires make you feel like a human-piston cyborg effortlessly pushing 25mph connected to the bike and road in a perfect fusion.

Mtb make you feel fast because trails are fun and scary and you can get loose, skid back tires, or do jumpz.

Gravel is just hours and hours of flat gravel country roads. And living in the country, there is a paved road right next to it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 12:31:54 No.1491042 Report

Quoted By:

>>1491001
I always found it funny that you can buy a motoribke that goes 150mph+ for cheaper than a new bicycle costs. The profit margins on bicycles must be through the roof.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO low tech.jpg, 117KiB, 959x1360

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 12:39:20 No.1491044 Report

Quoted By: >>1491194 >>1491705

>>1490296
>Since tech is generally trickle-down to lower price points, shit will flow to lower price points from the top end gaining ground.

AYYOOOOO HOL UP HOL UP HOL UP

how trickle can you even get? I know its a mantra that everything trickles down, but not to the same degree, quality STIs never trickled down as much as rims, quality mtb hydros never trickled down as much as quality pedals, suspensions forks never trickled down as much as alu handlebars etc.

There is stuff for certain tiers of use and some tiers are easier to trickle down that others, which is why entry level bikes are so expensive, they are trying to trickle down more complex technology like hydro discs, more cogs on the back etc. which an entry level user doesnt even need.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 23 May 2020 17:13:48 No.1491194 Report

Quoted By:

>>1491044
It just takes reduced cost of manufacture and manufacturers willing to exploit an open, lower priced market segment.

STI is trickling now (iirc microshift is making one). Hydraulic discs and non-coil suspension have additional maintenance and complexity that scare away people wanting a quality, cheap bike because they always have the appearance of expense. LBS's have to be the ones maintaining them and selling the magical snake oil that goes inside. You can't buy a shock pump just anywhere as well.
At the 300-400$ pp you get a hell of a lot more now than you did even just 10 years ago.

A factor in the cost increase is that LBSs also tend to include some sort of 'free' maintenance and fit with the sale, which they likely are charging for in the price hike, as well as factoring in the cost of test rides in sales.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Francesco-Moser-Hour-Record-bike (...).jpg, 363KiB, 1000x667

Anonymous Sun 24 May 2020 12:42:18 No.1491681 Report

Quoted By: >>1491689 >>1491828

>>1490981
There was a period with lots of experimentation in the 80s and 90s, and the UCI clamped down on it because Merckx was assblasted that Moser wrecked his record with pic related. And then LeMond won that TdF with clip on bars and aeroshit on the last stage and pissed off just about everyone in the cycling world, and specifically the entire country of France.

Anyway, while the UCI has influences on what road bicycles look like, I don't think that they're as pronounced as you think they are. After all, the bike industry has been able to push trifaggotry, MTB, and now gravel, none of which the UCI has much influence over. The reason why the Terry-style bike ultimately failed was because retailers didn't want to stock 24" wheels and tires. 650c solved the same toe overlap and bb height problem for smaller riders, and again the reason for it getting pushed out wasn't the UCI, it was the bike industry wanting to maximize profits (less product variation = lower COGS = more $$$), which meant killing consumer demand for 650 by pushing myths that smaller wheels are somehow slower. If the industry really wanted to, they would be able to push any shit they want down the UCI's throat, just as they did with disc brakes on road racing bikes, which literally nobody asked for, but the industry was desperate for a way to sell new high-margin fredsleds.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1589012439714.jpg, 35KiB, 445x604

Anonymous Sun 24 May 2020 12:59:35 No.1491689 Report

Quoted By:

>>1491681
>(less product variation = lower COGS = more $$$)
>tfw the only reason 27.5" was picked up by the industry was to ease mtbers into the 29er cock so they can get away with having tooling for only one size of wheel across all of competitive cycling
>mfw I actually like 650B because it lets you spec bikes for whatever the fuck you want by swapping wheels and cockpit around but now it's aimed at gravelfags and their willingness to pay $100 per tire

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 May 2020 13:22:14 No.1491705 Report

Quoted By: >>1491714

>>1491044
>quality STIs never trickled down as much as rims

Look at this nigga hasn't ridden a bike with the last 2 generations of Claris. It shifts great.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 May 2020 13:31:55 No.1491714 Report

Quoted By:

>>1491705
>Claris

true that, but notice how much time was it needed to trickle STIs compared to lets say a solid alu rim

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 24 May 2020 18:06:26 No.1491828 Report

Quoted By:

>>1491681
I agree with a lot of this but I think that MTB/etc you listed is more sidestepping the issue of the UCI. The tech trickles down and when the high price buyers are willing to just eat shit the manufacturers have no reason to burn money on bribes challenging the UCI.
So what gets to the average-consumer price point? Things that are primarily not for racing bikes. The exceptions are things you have to dig around on the internet to find, rather than walking into a walmart or LBS.

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