Originally Posted by
robertorolfo
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.
You are comparing a top of the line bike to a mid level motorcycle and a basic econo car. You know Ducati Superleggeras clock in around $90k right? For a two wheel motorcycle? I mean, I can buy a house and a bit of land in the rural world for that money, for a price of an engine and two wheels and a bit of plastic. Cars? Lets not even talk about the amount of $200k+ supercars running around the average city. I can buy a pretty decent house in nearly any city in America for that cost. $15k for a top of the line racing model seems down right cheap compared to those prices, when you compare like to like. In that direction, if you want to compare bikes to the prices you are citing, you are looking around $1500 for a bike comparable in level to that $15k motorcycle, and $400 for a bike comparable to that car.
Also lets consider most folks on a $15k bike actually have a use for it: racing. I know more than a few folks whose weekends are spent at the track with motorized vehicles. $15k doesn't get you a whole lot in that world, certainly not much beyond a basic setup in most racing series, even in cost controlled things like Autocross or Chump Car.
Originally Posted by
Metieval
the sad part, the Majority of the $1,000 entry level bikes are not any better than some of $100 Craigslist bike...
yet people flock to buy them, cause they are "new".
Yes, but without $1000 new bikes, there would never be $100 used bikes on CL
