smd4

For sure. Thank God I'm not wearing it. Although my Chinese wife agrees that the Chinese produce a lot of crap.

tomato coupe

I think most of the cycling public had a different experience during COVID.

Koyote

Ah, so you're playing the "Some of my best friends are ---" card.

Nice.

LesterOfPuppets

$14k bikes are soooo 2022.

mstateglfr 

Costs have increased for new bikes, I agree. Its been 3 years since covid first hit. In that time, shops were selling bikes for the same price they had in years past, shops couldnt get enough bikes or components, shops increased rates to offset higher vendor costs, etc. And yes, many brands benefitted during the last 3 years. The lack of inventory seems to have allowed them to increase bike costs and reset expectations. Their production costs had increased though and it seems like you dont even acknowledge that.

The US dollar has lost 13% of its value since 2020. $100 in 2020 equals $114.68 today. So $2000 in 2020 equals $2293 today. Can you maybe possibly accept that some of the price increase you see is based on this simple reality that all of us are experiencing?

I will agree that in some ways bikes have increased well beyond that inflationary number mentioned directly above. Enthusiast road groupsets have become much more expensive. That isnt bike companies though, thats Shimano/SRAM/Campy.
I strongly dislike 105 going to di2 only as that will force the price of mid-level 105 bikes to increase substantially. Thing is, that increased price comes with more features so it isnt just an increase in price for the sake of taking more money out of consumer's hands. I still dislike it, but thats because I want mechanical drivetrain options to continue.

smd4

Not really a "card."

Man, back in the day we used to rip on all the crappy stuff that was "made in Japan." No one thought of throwing around the "xenophobic" epithet then.

Sorry if you're offended. Truly I am. And sorry to burst your bubble, but in general, stuff from China isn't often considered the cream of the crop.

genejockey 

And a lot of good, high quality products, too.

I am, and I suspect you are also, old enough to remember when "Made In Japan" was taken to mean cheap, low quality crap. My, oh my, how times have changed.

I remember back in about 1980, when I was working at Cornell, the President of the University visited China and made a deal for an academic exchange program, where they'd swap scholars. The lab I worked in took in at least 4 of them. They arrived with only the most rudimentary understanding of Molecular Biology. They were decades behind, and the recently overturned Cultural Revolution didn't help either.

And here we are, 40 years later, and there are a number of successful businesses that sell Molecular Biology services, done in China, with the resulting materials shipped to you in the US. The quality is excellent and the turnaround time, even with shipping, beats what you could get from a wholly US based company.

genejockey 

Maybe they should have. Hell, 50 or 100 years ago, a LOT of things were "okay" that really weren't okay even at the time.

prj71

I know. Seemed to be geographic more than anything. My local bike shops had bikes and parts and if they didn't have parts I was always able to find them online.

During the height of Covid I bought 4 bikes. One mountain bike (purchased Oct. 2020) , two Trek road bikes (puchased April 2021 and April 2022) and a Kona fat bike (Purchased Feb. 2021)

Also during that time I purchased chains, cassettes, rotors, bike seats, carbons wheels and various other parts. It was a little more difficult than usual but with some resourceful online searching I always found what I needed.

LesterOfPuppets

Here in AZ supply didn't get depleted 'til after the gyms were shut down for a few months. Gym shutdown was around July 2020 - "The governor of Arizona has ordered bars, movie theaters, gyms and water parks to shut down". It's too hot for most people to ride bikes here after 9am in July so it took a while before people really started buying bikes, but by spring 2021 there weren't many to be had around here.

EBikeFanatic

Does this mean cheaper bikes?

prj71

Bikes are coming down in price now for sure. More companies are finally offering sale prices.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread...the bike I purchased in 2020 was $5200. Then they jacked it up to $6700. Now it's "on sale" for $5500. More or less the price it should be if I were to consider about 3 years of inflation

This is the bike I bought in 2020 for $5200.

https://spotbikes.com/collections/bi...32140455018530

Koyote

My thoughts exactly, genejockey . I'm glad that we now have greater awareness of, and repercussions for, the sort of casual racism that was commonplace in my youth.

ShannonM

$864,000 / ($14,000 / bike) = 61.7 bikes

Of course, the better question is, "how many little bike shops could they have sued for that money?"

--Shannon

smd4

God. seriously? Why don’t you explain to the rest of us how “Italians make better steel frames than the Chinese (or North Koreans or Russians or Iraqis”) is racist.

Koyote

I wasn't replying to you. But it's interesting that you're so defensive about it. Very interesting.

smd4

You were replying to GJ who was replying to me. Therefore you were agreeing with his response to me. But I’m glad that you find what I say is “[v]ery interesting.” Mission accomplished!

Kontact

If you like goods made by ethnic Chinese in Taiwan over PRC goods, are you still xenophobic?

smd4

I’m sure I’ll be waiting a LONG time for an answer (that makes any sense).

smd4

Hell no. You’re anti-communist.

Russ Roth

Not certain how much of a slowdown there will really be, I've already been asked if I'll be available this spring for bike building as the shops are still just keeping up with sales and repairs. Here on LI the paths aren't quite as full as what they were in the middle of 2020 they aren't as empty as they were in the middle of 2019 either. Plenty of people rediscovered their love of the outdoors and riding.
Like some of the others here, the pandemic didn't create too many problems for me, I outfitted a cross bike with full 12sp chorus, bought a mtb each for my oldest and middle kid, a road bike and 2 track bikes, not to mention plenty of parts. Biggest issue was the oldest having to run a force axs left lever with cable disc for 5 months till the hydraulic rival shifter came available. Sadly that supply chain issue hasn't been resolved fully as I have now had the right force cable lever on order for 3 months so I can install it on the youngest kid's bike. But it did seem like the bike companies took advantage of the perceived extreme shortage to have an excuse to raise the prices, not that their wasn't some shortages, but the hype seemed to make it look worse then it was.
As to Chinese bike qualities. My 2 cents, they can make some fine quality stuff but most of what is sent over is the low end crap some of which can be downright sketchy. As a whole it gives the country, in my eyes, a generally negative impression of the overall quality of what they produce, understandable since they're used by all the bike companies as a cost cutting measure to build ever cheaper quality bikes. But in addition when I think of quality I think of American made, Italian, and European in general. But that's true for me of more than just bikes. I know that Chinese made harbor freight ratchets and wrenches are decent and sturdy, I also know its my broken knuckles if the tool fails when trying to force something loose, and so I use Wright, SK, Gedore and Snap-on due to their higher strengths and lower failure rates, cause the Germans and Americans make some of the best tools. It's going to be a while longer before Chinese stops being equated with cheap, the movement of cheaper made items to Vietnamese, Indian, and other SE Asian nations with still lower living costs might shift the perception, much like cheap manufacturing moving from Japan to Taiwan helped the overall impression of Japanese goods.

tenrec

The Chinese have gotten very good at stealing intellectual property.

Siu Blue Wind

Thanks for the compliment

elcruxio

I am very doubtful that Italy produces better frames than Taiwan, where most bike frames these days are made. Naturally there's tiers based on price points but Taiwan is a cycling industry hub with the best tooling and knowhow for bicycle frames.

Boutique doesn't mean better. It just means boutique. And potentially custom options.

Germany_chris

It can't be because they don't have the magic Italian steel, air, and torches and darn it Cino Cinelli was good looking too