Norcal guy rants against expensive bikes on Youtube
 

Warning: this is a long and painfully slow video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF4MI...s_digest-vrecs

Bottom-line, $650 Motobecane from BikeDirect + a few uopgrades is pretty much all non-racers need - the market has "deteriorated" to become a "gear sport".

I've seen a few of his other videos - he is a big fan of Bikesdirect. His reviews seem pretty sincere though, so I won't call him a shill.

"Anyone who has ever watched one of my videos"... probably nodded off in the first three minutes.

The information is good and quite accurate in that recreational cyclists don't need to drop excessive amounts on their bikes.

but I like Kestrels, they are pretty birds

I know it's his video and it's his opinion which makes sense most of the time BUT .... zzzzzzzzzzz

Nobody "needs" expensive and latest stuff. That being said if someone "wants" it, why not? Same thing applies to every other sport, and hell everyday life.

I find an idea that someone needs to be at level X to buy equipment at level Y laughable and speaks volumes about a person who has it. Specially if they try to apply it to others.

He's "sickened" by seeing people buy bikes they like and enjoy riding them? Who asked him to be the arbiter of what people are allowed to spend on their hobbies?

Regardless of whether anyone "needs" a $10K road bike to workout on the weekends and ride the occasional group ride, if they can afford it and want to spend that kind of money, then more power to them!

Capitalism converts just about everything into a "gear sport". Welcome to Planet Earth.

That said, my Motobecane Fantom CX is a great all-rounder. Take it on the gravel, take it on the country roads, take it to work. Love it.

But I did rent an OCR-1 once several years ago, and I borrowed a Madone 5.2 from a friend in '09, and they were great for plugging through a century at a spirited pace. I would certainly not ride them to work, though... too precious, too nice, too clean, too dainty.

Non gear sports: running, tennis, bowling

Even at $10,000 for a bike, I'll bet the enjoyment time per dollar is generally a lot higher than for personal airplanes, fancy cars, or boats.

I wonder if there are people on the Yachting forums who make videos about how no one really NEEDS a gigabuck yacht and most folks should be buying the budget model from YachtsDirect.com for half a mil or less because this is just getting ridiculous.

The "Yeah, but..." is, it affects everyone to some extent. Like trying to find a group ride/century where everyone isn't charging on their wunderbikes. Of course, according to Mr. Horn, is doesn't make much difference what bike you're on unless there is some hill climbing involved.

That line, "..what are we getting for this $11,000 difference...", is pretty hard to argue with.

1. There are magazines devoted to all three of those sports that will sell you tons of expensive gear under the guise of making you better at the sport. Sell, sell, sell. Gear, gear, gear.
2. Cannot argue with the enjoyment/dollar equation. :)
3. ... are there yacht forums? Might be fun to crash... :)

Who cares if everyone else is on a wunderbike? If you're so opposed to the gear race, why would you even notice? Besides, instead of working to earn all those extra $$, you spent your time on your $600 mail order bike, so you have legs of steel and can ride a 3 hour century on your recovery day, right? Just think how morally superior you'll feel flying past all those fools on their 15 lb road bikes and showing them how you're not caught up in their silly materialist capitalist games!

Funny, his "top ten bike inventions of the last 50 years video" has "bike design diversity" as #1 . Seems a little contradictory to slam expensive bikes in one video, celebrate creativity and diversity in the next. I guess creativity and diversity is only legit if it translates to cheap, mass marketed bikes.

1. Beyond a certain point, it's all diminishing returns. Very, very few of us would be any faster on a $10,000 bike than on a well-set-up $2000 bike.

2. $10,000 bikes are really cool.

3. It's your money.

Do I NEED three bikes? No. Do I WANT 3 bikes. Yeah, and I didn't go broke buying them/building them.

Imagine pulling in to San Remo on your yacht... all eyes are on you as you roll your bike down the gangway for a ride up the Cipressa... and then they see IT'S A MOTOBECANE! - AWKWARD


http://www.charterworld.com/images/y...%20profile.jpg

Note to self: Unload bike at night.

:roflmao:

I guess if you spent all the money on the yacht...

I have really enjoyed this thread (lot's of good natured laughs and humor). I say buy what you can afford and if you don't like that, go run.......of course, have you checked out the price of running shoes lately, o well, I would go to the library and read a book if I could afford the gas OR I could ride my Walmart bike.

I think what's happened the past 20 years or so is that pretty decent bikes have been commoditized. In 1987 I spent $2,000 to get a good bike and in 2011 I spent $2,000 to get a good bike (one frame Italian steel and the next Taiwanese carbon).

However people willing to spend more money on higher performance supports innovation within the industry--innovations which eventually trickle down to a sub $1K bike--so it seems a bit silly to rant about those who actually create the incentive for innovations.

Spending more for a bike isn't really a big deal if you ride the thing or if it serves to give some physic pleasure. The only way I believe bikes will get you into financial trouble is if you miss too much work riding, or get injured in a crash (esp. w/o insurance) so that you can't work.

Otherwise, I hardly notice the money spent on my bike/accoutrements. We're in a rather perverse situation where luxury goods (like full carbon bikes) are relatively cheap and life's necessities, such as housing or health insurance, are very expensive.

I actually endured the entire video. Did he really say the a bike that is not perfectly aligned will cost the rider four to five miles per hour? It's one thing to estimate based on knowledge/experience, but this sounds like a number that came from a smelly orifice.

On his main point: meh. Oh so many folks think the only correct way to do something is the way they do it and he's clearly one of them. If someone enjoys a $10,000 bike and can afford it, that seems just fine to me. The more nice stuff people buy, the more of it finds its way to the second hand market for us cheapskates.

37 minutes? TL;DNW.

Clicked on the first linked video instead and saw an actual crabon assplosion; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcqcSuIKcKk Much more fun.

Oh, and I drive a Focus, and have no intention of ever driving anything more expensive, but I don't care if someone wants to pay 5 times the price for a BMW to drive the same commute or shorter.

What does need have to do with it? Who bloody well cares what someone else is riding? I will never ever understand the mindset of those that tear down.

I've pondered his point a little more. Clearly, I should feel bad about my moderately expensive CF road bike. I could have bought 6 or more of his recommended bikes for what I paid, so I'm clearly a deluded fool.

On the other hand, my mountain bike is the same 1984 Univega Alpina Ultima I bought new in 1984. So I should feel pretty good about not spending $2-10K on a full suspension CF rig with all the latest bells and whistles? But in 1984, my Alpina Ultima WAS the latest and greatest, so maybe I should feel foolish for having spent an outlandish sum of money 30 years ago.

I'm confused.

The only times I care what someone else is riding:

1. When their bike is really cool, and I can admire it as it passes.

2. When their bike is a really bad fit, and I feel bad for them.

3. When their bike is really loud, and the noise bugs me, like squeaky-chain-lady yesterday. Geez, would a drop of oil kill you?

4. When their bike seems in danger of coming apart, and they're in front of me.

Is this like smartphones? They get better and better but most of them are expensive for the lower class.

Only recently did they decide to have "budget" versions, do you think we'll ever see carbon fiber bikes going for under $500? At least in PC hardware you'll eventually get something that's twice as fast for $100 if you don't want to plunk down $400+ on upgrades.
I remember you could get a decent CPU and mobo for $200, now you're looking at spending $400 for a Quad core. (but this is probably AMDs fault for not being competitive)

As someone remarked in another thread, "the most expensive bike is the one that you don't ride."

I've put over 6,000 miles on my Colnago C59 since I bought it on June 2012. I guess that makes the C59 a relatively inexpensive bike.

Hey Astro..., I'll help with that comprehension thing..I am a Mensa guy afterall.

He makes two primary points: 1) The incremental benefit differences are small, the incremental price differences are huge, and 2) Chasing these small incremental improvements distorts the purpose of non-race bike riding (fun and fitness) and ends up being an exclusionary factor for new entrants, i.e. high cost to entry impedes market growth.

Carbon fiber frames are going for under $500, check eBay. The $11K Trek he's talking about will be probably be selling used for $3-4K on CL in a year or so, rejoice. I'm surprised he missed the "terrible resale value" diss entirely.

The analogy to smartphones works if you are thinking about these semi-monthly releases of iPhones. And, since I've kept buying up those old dual core XP running machines I have no idea what the CPU market is pushing these days... Have they come out with dual quad cores yet? I think I'll wait for the eighteen wheeler CPUs.

I'm not sure what you mean by "high cost to entry". Last I checked, brand name road bikes were still starting with three-digit MSRPs.

$11K Treks are purely symbolic (I believe the corresponding term in auto manufacturing is "halo car".) An analogy would be Chevrolet's Corvette ZR1. It is a monster car with 600+ hp supercharged engine and $110,000 sticker price. GM makes fewer than 1000 of those every year - about 0.05% of the total number of Chevrolet branded vehicles. I doubt that the share of $11K bikes in total Trek sales is substantially higher (once you exclude pro racing teams). Besides, no one really buys $11K Treks for the sticker.

I'll agree, and the last time I walked through Mike's Bikes the sweet spot seemed to be about $1300, some cheaper but nothing over $3900. Still his point about $600 mail order bikes seems valid to me, and that gets you alot of bike for a new rider. I'm hardly a cheap skate, but even as a CF bike owner I get sticker shock walking through my LBS; $500 gets you a used bike parked in the stand out by the tree...down by the river.

I have one major problem with the whole "BikesDirect is better" attitude, it pre-supposes that you know how to fit a bike. My co-worker has bought two bikes from BD, and in both cases got really good deals. At the same time these forums are full of people who were penny-wise, pound foolish getting bikes from BD.

If you purchase a bike from BD, then add a custom fit and new stem then suddenly the price isn't so cheap. Its great if you have a bike that you like, but for someone just starting out, most people would be far better served by a good LBS.

When I bought my new bike, I explicitly avoid BD, simply because I wanted a better fitting bike. The best way to accomplish that was going to shops and riding a wide range of models.