General Cycling Discussion - why

I believe this has been asked befor but I cannot find it so I will ask again.
Why is it that a decent road bike will run $600. and a decent mtn bike will run about $300. or $400..
whats the deal?
I would think that the mtn bike would be more cause it has to be built heavyer (sp)
Now I am not thinking of a carbon fiber bike or some exotic thing just a basic bike.

Rick

Pretty much marketing.

Thing is most people buy mountain bikes anymore, and only those who are serious into biking tend to buy road bikes (well except those that buy that d**ned GMC denali bike....that thing is utterly craptacular).

I've wondered about that myself. Besides having more material in it, mountain bikes also have suspension forks which, I assume, cost more to make than an unsuspended fork. Other than that, feature wise they look to me to be pretty similar. If you're looking at price per pound, the more you pay for a bike, the less you get.

The other side of the coin is lightweight usually equals higher risk of lawsuit-inducing failure...therefore the companies want to charge enough to be able to afford a good attorney or two if someone say, can't operate a seatpost clamp and takes out their kneecap or something.

I know bad example...but you get the idea.

Lightweight is harder to make. When you buy a steel frame, you aren't really buying steel. The steel is crap, its worth nothing, titanium, aluminum and CF are the same way, its not material that you pay for. Iron, titanium, carbon and aluminum are some of the most common substances in the earth's crust. What you are buying is the energy and time it took to design the frame, design the machines that make the material, make the machines that make it, and make the frame itself.

A mountain bike doesn't have to be all that light, people don't pay as much attention to the weight of a mountain bike. So you can use big heavy tubing that is easy to make. It doesn't even have to be butted! But to make something of comparable strength at half the weight... Now you are talking serious machines, and delicate tubing operations.

Well, that and marketing. ;) Mountain bikes are for x-treme kids who want to be in mt. dew commercials, and road bikes are for rich old guys who think their quads look good. Rich old guys have more money than x-treme kids, so you price accordingly. ;)

peace,
sam

Uh. The real reason why mountain bikes are cheaper is because they produce more than road bikes.

If you're looking at price per pound, the more you pay for a bike, the less you get.
Same as cars, a Porche costs more than a Jeep. They're both designed for a purpose...