$1700 is not a lot of dough compared to other things in the world. That's equivalent to a few things:

- cheap one month's rent in NYC,
- what like three days of college?
- a tenth of an inexpensive car
- less than two cheap airline tickets to Europe in high season

Need I go on? Just because there are $100 Xmart bikes out there doesn't mean $1700 for a decent piece of engineering is a lot of money.