Why are road components so expensive???
 

Some of you are industry folks as we know. So why are road components so expensive? I realize there are margins to cover and profits to be made but when the middle of the road groupset retails for nearly 900 bucks (105 for example) that starts to get a little insane. I understand a shifter is small complex item, but isnt Japan the nation the perfected the manufacture of small complex things? Anyway, you'd think like in other industries, as the tech gets better and more available, prices come down. tvs, audio equip, etc....Cycling is one industry where the prices of components just goes up!!

Nashbar has 10speed drivetrain for:

Shifters: $139
F.D.: $25
R.D.: $40
Crankset: $55
Chain, etc: $20

Doesn't seem like a lot to me.

So, road components aren't that expensive. Sure, as with everything, there are options that cost more. It's all about marketing.

even sram which is a domestic option costs a ton! microshift does seem like a compelling option for a budget conscious build. they are just the victim of intentionally bad marketing!! heh, he said arsis!!!

+1

I can put together a road bike for a few bucks or I can spend thousands. Both will roll down the road just fine. You want fast/stylish/the good stuff, you pay for it.

There's not many competitors because there's not a large enough market. Bikes make you sweat more than a smart phone.

They actually don't cost a ton. You're looking at the wrong stuff. Yes, the Shimano 105-ultegra-DA does cost a lot, and their SRM / Campy equivalents cost a lot too.

But you get can get excellent performance from a properly tuned lower-end groupset for a fraction of the cost. I have both a Sora bike and a DA bike, and while yes, the DA is better (and if you're criterium racing, you should probably spot for the 105+ stuff as you'll be shifting a lot, hard under pressure and one mis-shift may cause mass chaos or a wipeout in those packed quarters), the Sora meets my needs for 98% of my riding, as I rarely do criteriums. Even hammerhead group rides where people are attacking etc, the Sora is completely fine - it's just the actual race day criteriums where it falls short for me.

Why? Because people will pay for it.

You guys saying they aren't really expensive...I don't know what planet you are from. Not trying to be insulting. The way in which I think they are very expensive is looking at bike build up. Buy the time you buy any complete groupset of mid-level or better components (say 105 Shimano) you can nearly go buy a brand new bike with those components for the same or nearly the same money. Guys aren't giving away wheels, frames etc. So clearly there is a tremendous additional mark up on components vs their cost of making them. The makers are making a profit on supplying components on new bikes. They are making an obscene killing on parts purchased separately.

One can say whatever the market will bear, but they are making sure to extract maximum profit. I guess if they couldn't sell them then price would come down. So it could be a question turned around to ask, "why do people pay what they cost?" Nevertheless, on the other end, trying to build up from a frame or upgrade components on a bike I already own and like, I feel like I am a mark more than a customer. There are three main manufacturers and clearly they form an oligopoly. Prices should be a good bit lower if there weren't a lack of real competition.

As you have probably heard before -

Lighter, stronger, cheaper. Choose two.

Usually the higher-end stuff is the lightest, while still being just as strong or stronger than the cheaper(and heavier) stuff. Therefore, it's not cheap. Even if the company has already found a cheap way to manufacture such light, strong components, they won't pass that savings on because they know the market will pay it. People who want the lightest components for a high-end bike will have no problem paying for it- No matter what they actually use it for.

Buy a NOS gruppo from a couple of years prior and save big. If you"re savvy and don't have to have the latest, you can do quite well. And ask yourself - is 11, or 10 speeds really that much better than 9? The answer to that question may start you in the right direction - for you.

Spot on. That's generally the reason most things are the price they are.

Check out sources like Ribble and Shiny Bikes in the UK, particularly for Campy parts.

Mr. Supply? Meet Miss Demand.

You get get into a hobby, it costs a lot.

Because the bargain hunters are all looking for Campy parts. *

*kidding ... that's not bad advice ... just struck me as ironic given the OP ...

If you think you can build it cheaper at the same level of performance and quality, go for it.

even bikes direct got smart. not that long ago you could get a full whatever bike for pretty cheap, strip it, and still come out ahead. ebay takeoffs from asia are probably the cheapest way to go, huh? on an alternate, alternate, i saw of the retroshift shifters this weekend. the machining on them looks really good and sturdy. i may go this way for my bad weather bike.

http://retroshift.com/

Bought a BD bike last year - a similar bike today is a couple hundred bucks more. In the case of my purchase, that reflects about a 40% increase.

It's interesting that Campy makes a lot of their stuff in Italy still, paying their machinists a nice wage, and yet their groups aren't any more expensive than Shimano's and Sram's stuff. Maybe Campy charges about a fair price, given their greater overhead, and the other two just match it to increase their profits.

"Components? American components, Russian components; ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!":p

It takes a lot time and money to develop a new gruppo - like several years of development and testing. Then you develop processes to manufacture it. Then there's workwide distribution from where it's made and stocked and stored to your LBS, transportation, stocking and inventory, warranty costs, and maybe the biggest is advertising and marketing (look at the number of sponsored team each company supports, and take a look at every new cycling ad and read the what Sram does just to get in the marketplace. Add all that up and divide by the number of sets sold before it's time to replace that with the next version.

There are three major suppliers plus many more making pieces. That's enough to establish price competition. The prices aren't all that bad

The market really isn't that big which means everyone's R&D plus production costs plus some profit has to be covered. A million bucks might sound like a lot, but if you're trying to create sophisticated gear that you want to sell, it really doesn't buy much.

The reality is that you don't have to pay a lot if you don't want to. And most people don't which is why the mass produced bikes are cheap. And they're also crap on a number of levels which is why you won't find people who actually ride much using them. At some point, it's difficult to argue that spending more gets you a better bike, but it actually costs a fair amount to provide decent gear.

All made by the lowest bidder.

This. We aren't talking a commodity here. And the bike builders purchase boatloads of the components which results in them getting a silly lower price, and since I am ordering only one set I get to pay more. And consider retail/wholesale: If you are purchasing a $1000 gruppo, the dealer price is probably more like $600. Because you aren't purchasing in quantity, you get to pay that margin, plus the quantity doesn't get you into the next price tier.

Painful to pay $300 for a pair of shifters, but the economics of the game put you there. Again, Sora ain't too expensive, but we all usually want "better."

No Di2 for you.

Doesn't that show how cheap road components are - when you buy them in volume?

The volume discounts make a lot of sense to me. The huge cost supplying small parts - after the cost of the IP - has to be distribution costs them. If you think about it, the cost of shipping 10,000 derailleurs to a bike manufacturer is not 10,000 times the cost of shipping one derailleur to you.

This is only a guess, but my guess that not only does the component manufacturer save enormous amounts of money shipping in volume, I bet they are also very minimally packaged when you buy a lot of 10,000 for a manufacturing facility.

The same is like true for groupsets. If you want to buy 10,000 of them at a time - not in pretty packages - I bet you can get a heck of a deal.