robertorolfo

Ok, so I'm still fairly new here, and also fairly new to the sport/hobby (I've always ridden bikes here and there, and grew up on them as a kid, but never this much as an adult). When getting into bikes, I've taken the classic and vintage route for several reasons, and while price was one of them, it wasn't a major factor.

So recently I've been curious about more modern bikes, and taking a look around at what people are selling. But just now I followed a link to the Trek website where someone suggested a commuter bike for a poster in here, and I decided to click on the "Road Bikes" section to see what was going on.

And, well, OH MY GOD. Over $15K for a bicycle. For a freakin' bicycle! Yes, it's top of the line. Yes, it's carbon fiber. But seriously? Even the slightly lesser models were over $10k, while more "run of the mill" stuff is still around $5k.

What is this madness?

Now I should also add that I have a background in motorcycles, having owned a few and used them as my only source of transportation/commutting (no car, no bicycle, only public transport as an alternative) for few year stretch. So do you know what $15K will buy you in the motorcycle world? Something very, very decent. Something that will blow the doors off of just about any sports car on the road.

Maybe cars are more your speed? And you know what, there are quite a few entry level cars that come in around the $10K mark these days. Yes, the entire car... all four wheels of it.


So, seriously, how in the world can they justify these bike prices? I don't want to hear about R&D costs, because just as much money, if not more, is spent on designing a good motorcycle or even a basic car. And I don't want to hear about materials, because no way in heck 15lbs of whatever the heck they are using can cost more than hundreds of lbs of motorcycle material, or even more car material (no matter how cheap it is). Labor? Are you kidding me? Your hand-laid carbon fiber still isn't taking more time and man (or robot) hours than assembling a motorcycle or car. Just the complexity of an internal combustion engine alone...

I get it. These companies need to survive, and their sales of high end bikes won't approach those of bigger car and motorcycle brands, so they need higher margins and whatnot. I get that. But still. Something is seriously wrong here.