Originally Posted by
rschleicher
The flip-side of this question is: for which brands are you paying the most premium for their "name"?
No offense to any of the companies mentioned, but it has seemed to me that both Trek and Specialized command a bit of a price premium due to their well-known brands, compared to Cannondale, Felt, Scott, Jamis, Giant, etc. (Perhaps Cannondale is sort of between Trek/Specialized and the others.)
I seem to have observed the opposite. When shopping for a bike last year, it seemed that Specialized and Trek offerings in my price range had 105 components while Cannondale offered Tiagra at the same price, and wanted $200 more for 105. Cannondale has been well-known for a couple decades now and has been probably the #1 choice for amateur racers (look at all the CAAD recommendations here on the forum) for almost as long.