Originally Posted by
njkayaker
Anyway, as an approximation.
$300 bike == $5,000 car.
$700 bike == $14,000 car.
$1000 bike == $18,000 car.
$1500 bike == $20,000 car.
$3000 bike == $40,000 car.
etc
It costs something to provide basic quality and that something is probably about $500 for bicycles.
The profit margins at the low end (and $300 is pretty low). It's almost guaranteed that you aren't going to get something worthwhile at the really low end regardless of the source.
I think that this is an excellent post. I use the same "think of buying a car" logic to try to explain to people getting into road cycling why the entry level price point is about 700 dollars. I agree with all of your prices too--the values rise exponentially up to about about 1k then climb very gradually from there (and at a point, arguably, level off completely). It seems as if it does cost at least 500-700 to provide a decent road bike, especially when you factor in that none of the profit margins are substantial for all but the highest end bikes.