Bonzo Banana

I'd add to the debate by saying that bikes vary how they ride based on the rider. One person's perfectly flexy frame could be terrible for a heavier or lighter rider. I find I have to customise bikes to get them as I want them to make a bike suitable for me. You can make the point that Italian bikes have heritage both in winning races and innovation but I question realistically how good the bikes are overall as a good bike is quite an individual thing. Many italian brands of today are being churned out by factories in the far east except their premium models but you still get many people who clearly love these bikes and happy to pay extra for them despite the bikes being made next to bicycles destined for cheaper brands or shop brands. Yes the frames may have better tubing or maybe the carbon is better and the end components fitted to the frame may be different but the end price difference is still extreme even allowing for the different components. There will always be bikes available for whatever price people are willing to pay. Diminishing returns seems to be a common thing for bikes. Just shaving off an extra 100g off bike weight seems to cost huge money and the difference in cycling times can be seconds over hours of riding.

I bought a cheap Muddyfox road bike new and after use of various discounts and exploits I got it down to about £130, it's clearance price was about £150. It is equipped with a mainly Claris groupset, 16 gears, pretty much all aluminium and very well made generally. It weighs 11.5kg in its extra large frame size '60cm'. It's stronger and faster than many classic italian bikes and much, much safer with better brakes and certified to modern safety standards in pretty much all ways its a better bike. The gearing is better and it shifts quick and precisely. It was assembled in Bangladesh from pretty much all Chinese components in what they call 'tariff engineering' to avoid EU additional duties. Even if you don't accept that bike as superior an entry level Claris bike like the Giant Contend which is sub 9.5kg in weight with a carbon fork and a wider ratio cassette surely goes well beyond classic Italian bikes.

I'm just making the point like classic cars, classic hifi and many other classic things they are easily beaten in performance by much cheaper products today.