Originally Posted by
mdilthey
Almost all customers see bikes as a unit. For every bike-savvy tourist that buys a LHT, there are nine bike-illiterate weekend warriors and college kids buying one to putz around 3x a year.
To that end, we are not the driving force in the market. We may define trends and we may condemn bikes that don't check enough boxes, but as long as an LHT complete build has "enough" touring chops that it can stand alone, it will sell to the blind masses. Now, the blind masses are a fickle group, and so they won't buy the LHT if the Salsa Marrakesh or the Jamis Aurora looks like a better deal. So, Surly will carefully pick and choose components, scrape the bottom of the barrel for stems and seatposts, and generally offer a sub-optimal build to meet the price point demanded by 9/10 people.
You can do a built-to-order LHT- surly sells frames, and bike shops are happy to facilitate. You lose the collective bargaining power Surly uses to get components at 30-40% less on a complete build than if you buy them individually, so your complete bike will cost 30-40% more.
Completely agree on all of this except the cost to build from scratch. I agree with the goal of the companies to produce a bike for 9 or 10 people, the skimping on some components, etc etc etc.
The cost of 30-40% more I disagree with though.
Sure, if I were to try and build an LHT frame to the exact specs of a prebuilt LHT, my costs will me higher. But the whole point of going with a frame is to choose what goes on the frame and people will presumably not build it with identical components to whats on a prebuilt LHT as that wouldnt make sense.
So perhaps the build price will be higher, but the components would be exactly what the person wants and often times the components will be 'better'(of higher quality) than what could come stock. To compare apples to apples, you would have to consider a frame build up to the alternative of buying the bike completed, buying components you want to swap out, selling stock components you dont want, and figuring up the total spent.
Also, just tossing it out that component(and groups) are disgustingly cheap right now overseas that once you get a Deore transmission, barend shifters and drop levers, plus some handbuilt wheels with Deore hubs you will have spent about $500.
LTH frameset is $470
Transmission(crank, cassette, FD, RD, chain)- $130
10sp bar end shifters $70
Tektro brake levers $25
Salsa drop bar $50
Tektro miniVs $30
Headset $40
Stem $30
Tubes $10
Spacers $20
Tape $10
Seatpost $25
Housing and cables $15
Wheelset $150-300
Tires for $70
So thats $1145 to $1295 total depending on the wheelset and it has as good as or better components than a stock LHT.
disclaimer- did I forget something? I dont think so. If i did, apologies. I left the saddle off on purpose since its swapped out on most all bikes.
Cheaper than a built LHT and thats without hunting around for deals or buying anything used. $70 will get you some great tires. $225 will get some really solid built 36h wheels.
Now you could go much nicer than what I listed, but what I listed is(in my view) nicer than a stock LHT and cheaper. So adding in higher quality components(TRP levers instead of stock Tektro, Paul Shorties instead of Tektro miniVs, etc) could be done and you may only start to come to the price of a new LHT BEFORE swapping stuff out.
...got carried away there! Ive been avoiding starting a project at work...dang.