Daoooo

you do pay extra for names. you can get performance double 105 for 600 with coupons, but fuji roubaix pro will cost at lease 900 with coupon. very similar equiped bikes. is it all that different? that's up to u to decide.

Trogon

Let me let you in on a little secret - a $5000 bike IS 5 times better than the $1000 bike you're crying about. But, since it costs big bucks to get into the club, you'll never know. When you see us out there on the road riding the fanciest bikes you've ever seen, you might wonder a little bit about that wry smile we're wearing.

roadfix

Don't be so cheap, Scooper........you sound like my dad...

53-11_alltheway

I think they cost so much is because everything is on the verge of being too light.

CAAD8 aluminum frame is a good example. they are always shaving grams off the frames and stressing them to see where they can get away with taking weight off. That's costs a lot of money to do that.

Overbuilding stuff is cheap to do.

stealthbiker

You also have to remember that without the $5000 bikes the $1000 bikes would not be what they are today. Trickle down technology has to come from somewhere. If not for the high end bikes we would all be using down-tube friction shifters and 5 speed cassettes. Your $1000 bike was a high end model a few years ago. You should thank the people who bought those bikes - they made your purchase possible.

RedHairedScot

Seriously, there really is nothing keeping you from selling your own bikes. If I had undergrad to do all over again I would probably have gone aerospace engineering, not electrical engineering. My AE roommate played with carbon fiber all day (back in '99). A few decent designs later, and who knows.

You listening, Merton? Ditch the physics degree and become an aerospace or mechanical engineer. Gooood stuff.

simplyred

How does a Materials Science undergrad and Aerospace Masters look on a resume?

I want to work for Cervelo SOOOO bad... there right downtown in toronto...
Just need to work on my credentials..

Triguy

This thread got me thinking about what exactly I'd pay for a bike, so I looked at exactly what I would want out of a bike. Steel, under say 17lbs (don't give me the old cut the engine weight, the engine is about as low as it goes at 5'9" 129) and realistically I would rather have Campy. So I did a build with those parameters. A surly frame with mostly Centaur but some Chorus(shifters) and Veloce(brakes) came to around 1650 and 16.5 pounds. So I'd have to say the most I'd probably spend on a bike is 2000. Really i'm just pumped about the fact that I culd have my "ultimate" bike so easily I think.

Thus I disagree, bikes aren't too expensive, they're that way because people pay for them. We all want something and we're willing to put a price on it. If you really want a functioning machine called a bike get a Dawes off ebay for 250. Me I want something that ha certain traits.

suntreader

khuon

When I told my stepdad (a mechanical engineer) that I was going aerospace, he remarked to me, "I thought you said you had always wanted to be an engineer." His point was that at the very edge of aerospace engineering, a lot of economic principles get thrown aside and his mantra of engineering was "doing for a buck what any fool can do for a hundred". Now we all know that there has always been a bit of a relationship between aerospace and bicycle technology so it stands to reason that at the very edge of cycling tech, certain design principles rely on the ability to disregard or throw out economic boundary conditions. BTW, as part of a project, I did design a full-suspension exotic-material (CF, beryllium and titanium) MTB that utilised an FSR-style rear suspension with many parts CNC-milled. The estimated cost of such a frame including tooling overhead and all economic conditions applied would have been somewhere in the ballpark of $18,000 in 1992 dollars... and that was assuming a production run of 5,000 units.

lisitsa

All bikes being 500 would be pretty bad. It would mean that manufacturers would have to compete at a very low price, simply because everyone else was selling bikes below 500 as well. Thus they would take shortcuts, to seemingly release a better quality bike for 500. People need to upgrade. If you have a 500 dollar bike, and it gets old, its no fun to just get another 500 dollar bike. You get a 1000, then a 2000 then a 4000.

For people who appreciate a well running bike, it is really worth it, and the enjoyment of pedalling without a creak, crackle, or imperfection, with a beautifuly crafted bike, is priceless.

The only people I do not agree with are people who ride road bikes, but are not BIKE ENTHUSIASTS. You see the back wheel wobbling from side to side, or the mismatched tire colours, and you know they don't APPRECIATE the bike, and thus for them it's a waste of money, yet the same bike can be great value for money to a bike enthusiast.

velocipedio

when you buy a full suspension mtb for less than $400, you're pretty much getting what you paid for.

scooper836

Wow, good stuff. Only one or 2 pointless 'get a clue' comments. And of course the $5000 is 5x times better than the $1000 bike argument. Funny.

Econ 101, supply and demand, marketing costs, trickle down technology, all makes sense. And you are right, the $300 full suspension mtb is a 40lb piece of junk.

And of course, riders who pay >$1000 are fairly passionate and actually want to pay that much in some cases.

Build my own <$500 bikes to get rich.... theres an idea. The designs are all the same - 2 wheels, diamond shaped frame, seat, brakes, and shifters.... maybe next week.

Looks like my post was effective in creating some thought and getting you guys rialed up. My idea for this post came when I was explaining to my wife why bikes cost so much. She had a point - its just a bike. What does she know?

53-11_alltheway

That's an awesome quote.

JBar

My riding buddy, who has also served as my coach, gear guru and technical advisor, made this comment about my 04 Cannondale R1000 ( CAAD 7, Ultegra) vs his Six13 (Dura Ace, etc , etc, etc): "You got 95% of the bike for 25% of the money......but I'm willing to pay for the extra 5%".). Like most things, especially technical products, there is a higher price for each additional increment of quality and performance and thankfully, there are people willing to pay for those increments. That way, the rest of us benefit by being able to buy what was cutting edge two years ago for relatively pedestrian prices.

Dr. Moto

But what I really want to know is...why do plasma TV's still cost $3000 and up?

pseudobrit

The average new car costs over $30,000.

I see ads in the paper for slightly used ones that cost a few thousand dollars.

How can so many people justify spending the extra $20,000+?