[Closed] Why Are Mountain Bikes So Expensive?

If i was earning less than £35k a year I'd deem my life a failure

😀 awesome trolling

I just had a look online and discovered that I could buy a bike that does everything I would ever need for around £1000.
Or I could get last years model or a second hand one for considerably less.

That does not seem expensive at all for what it is - in fact it seems like a bargain.

Its the whole 'want vs need' debate again

Yes and I suppose to some people mtbing is cheap enough to want, and buy, all the things you don't actually need. Which manufacturers must love.

Yes, and a bike gets you 15kg of materials, a car gets you around 1500kg!!

Low weight and miniaturisation is expensive. Who wants to ride a heavy bike!?

Design can be expensive, tooling can be expensive but you find most raw materials are sold by weight. A car contains 100x more material.

I just had a look online and discovered that I could buy a bike that does everything I would ever need for around £1000.

Thats great.

But I think if you work in IT you automatically have delusions of grandeur. You'll spend most of your time riding round flat trail centres but your planning an alps trip in the year 2021 and you'll be reaching world cup race speeds down the road from the Les Gets to Morzine.

Therefore you need to have the latest most adjustable MEGAVALANCHE forks/shocks/seat posts/brakes/gears

Special77 is Shibboleth and someone owes me a fiver.

35k+ per year and you can't afford to put enough petrol in it to drive to work, where's Nelson Muntz when you need him?

Oh and whilst we are at it, could everyone please stop buying tyres that cost more than car tyres? Can't you see they are taking the p!ss charging these prices? Its a strip of rubbery canvas.

Sir, Sir, bigjim just avoided the swear filter. Tell 'im Sir.

Dunno, a 1k Boardman looks like pretty good value to me.

never said I can't afford fuel but for amodern car would expect better than 29mpg in a 1.6 petrol compared to my 3.6.

As someone above said it is the 'want vs. need'. No point getting angry that some things in life are beyond your reach just because you don't earn enough money, plenty of people do.

£1k boardman is good value but I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than ride one.

My car tyres are £175 each, my bike ones are £30, whats your point bigjim?

Sweet, me too, the pins in the eyes thing I mean.

I've paid more for a bike tyre than I have for a car tyre. Mind you that was for a super fast tub for my TT bike (which also wears out in no time 🙄 )

I would never pay over 1500 for a bike. There are so many decent second hand bikes and parts going around that you would be stupid to pay anything more for the performance gain. For example I picked up a pair of next to new forks 2010 for £240. New price £600. Most of my bike is made up of second hand parts.

I bought a lovely Cannondale MX for £500. New bikes do seem a bit pricey but aren't things priced liked that so they you think you are getting a bargain with a 5% discount?

I've paid more for a bike tyre than I have for a whole car - anyone beat that? 🙂

my friend sold a car for (cheap) a bottle of wine...

specialized camber:
[img] [/img]

bargain.

If i was earning less than £35k a year I'd deem my life a failure

If I was that bothered about money, and what 'status' it gave me, I'd deem my life a failure.

£1k boardman is good value but I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than ride one.

Lordy. You really are a stuck up so-and-so aren't you? I feel sorry for you in a way, but I'm just glad I'm not like you more than anything else.

If i was earning less than £35k a year I'd deem my life a failure

I've failed... Everyone at ST has failed! The last ten years has all been for nothing... Bugger!

I've just had a read back through this whole thread, as I'd not read it all.

Is it just me or is this Special77 character spouting some of the most incredible bilge I've ever seen, even for STW?

and with his sn linking through to a bike shop in Eastbourne...class

time to bring out the billy goat gruff 😉

I just punched myself in the face for being a TOTAL LOSER in life Mark, it's ok, it only hurts the once.

Thing is, you just know that special77 is going to pop back on this thread and say "Ohh, i knew that comment would get a few backs up..."

He probably stares in the mirror in the morning chanting "Your a winner"

I've always liked TVRs and the attitude of their late owner, Peter Wheeler, and I foolishly assumed their owners would be decent sorts...

There are plenty of bikes out there for reasonable money. I may or may not be able to afford the priciest ones out there but for me, at the moment, the cost:satisfaction ratio is better lower down the scale. Likewise with cars - until I get all the slow moving cars in front out of the way, a more exciting and more expensive quicker car would be too much of an exercise in frustration for the extra cost to pay back in driver satisfaction.

I do find a TVR owner using the word 'plastic' as a pejorative downright bizarre...

I keep hearing about IT workers with 3k bikes in trail centers - when did they stop being spotty fat nerds with no social skills??

Oh and whilst we are at it, could everyone please stop buying tyres that cost more than car tyres? Can't you see they are taking the p!ss charging these prices? Its a strip of rubbery canvas. ive always thought this as well.

Is it just me or is this Special77 character spouting some of the most incredible bilge I've ever seen, even for STW?

Surely not?

and with his sn linking through to a bike shop in Eastbourne.

What's wrong with 1970's Triumphs?

Someone has probably said it already but too many posts to remember. Most people (if they were so inclined and were willing and able to scrimp on other things) could buy a top of the range mtb, but very, very few could come close to a top of the range car, Aston Martin anyone? It completely baffles me how there are so many £40 000 plus cars out on the road

It completely baffles me how there are so many £40 000 plus cars out on the road

Yeah but look at the average person who drives these kind of cars, they haven't exactly got there working for the overall good of humanity and the planet have they, they are no 1, etc, etc.

Hahaha @ the guy saying "if I earnt less than £35k my life would be a failure" - Classic, bet you wish you hadnt said that!

Just on the subject of cars, and in responce to bigjim. I think thats a tad unfair, my Dad has worked very hard and now has 2 Aston Martins, but he is genuinely the nicest, kindest and generous man you could ever meet!! I think its the people who have their cars on finance and costing more a month than their mortgage who are the silly ones, and probably the ones with the personality like you said.
You can almost spot a knob by what they are driving, but it doesnt mean that everyone with an expensive car is a .

[b][Post edited due to unacceptable language. Mod][/b]

Yeah but look at the average person who drives these kind of cars, they haven't exactly got there working for the overall good of humanity and the planet have they, they are no 1, etc, etc.

That's as lame a comment as the 35K one.

Well my _ _ _ _ is the biggest/best/most satisfying, oh hang on Special77 just turned up 😆

Quite why we don't all just own up to being 'Gods of Gnarr' and 'Sultans of Shred' and admit we must have the uber tech bikes on offer to meet our outstanding riding skillz I don't know, then this topic never even start 😆

I to am a failure as my basic wage is less than £35k 😡

- however a top end set of golf clubs will be in the several thousand pound mark

- however a top end set of golf clubs will be in the several thousand pound mark

= rubbish.

Yep. Golf is rubbish.

Is it just me or is this Special77 character spouting some of the most incredible bilge I've ever seen, even for STW?

POT! KETTLE!!

Makes mental note...

special77 is a complete c&ck!!!!!!

I really can't believe I read the £35k remark...

I'm 37, with a good postgraduate education and am unemployed, how much of a failure does that make me...

All those nurses and key workers must stink of FAIL!

Nope. Go & look up a band 7 nurse.

Cock.

Worth a ban...

Oh yes!

This guy sounds like a knob, perhaps he is an ex Apprentice candidate, or even worse [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/series6/stuart-baggs.shtml ]Stuart Baggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/url]

special77 = Gareth Cheeseman

I particularly like the bit where he said he wouldnt want a plasticy car.

errr but last thing he said before that was that he drives a TVR... and errr they are made out of plastic

what a

[b][Post edited and warning given for more unacceptable language. Mod][/b]

My first mountain bike does everything I do on my current one and more and cost me £89 from a catalogue. Universal sierra Nevada. My current ones unprovable spend that on brake pads every 3months!

I earn a LOT less than £35k a year too, with shares and dividends included, but I don't think I'm a failure! I just have too look at my family to see that!

I'm still laughing at the TVR two pages later

can we get Golf added to the swear filter please

"Why are mountain bikes so expensive?" = "Why have I been suckered into believing I won't have fun unless I'm on a £2000 bike?"

Because you're gullible?

They're just a tool. like a car. But they're also aspirational, like a car. But because they cost less, you think it's an afordable way of achieving aspirations.

You can have fun ragging a formula Ford Fiesta round a track, but you don't look at Formula one cars and think "Why are racing cars so expensive?"

Same deal, [hyperbole]you might have been led to believe a £2,000 is mid range, but in the same way force india is mid range compared to the red bulls[/hyperbole].

You're looking at a £2,000 bike. Are you worth it?

I'd never even consider buying a bike that cost less than £1,000. Even £1,500 is stretching it.

The parts certainly seem expensive to me.

What's the RRP on an XTR crankset - £450 odd? Bargain!

£20 for a chain?
Cassettes - £35-50?

And to think it all gets shagged from being ridden in mud...

..and wheels.. where does the cost of an expensive (say £400 upwards) set of wheels come from exactly?

35K?? Wooohooo At last I'm a success! My whole life has been validated. Go me! 🙄

I think i might set aside £1000.49 worth of success for an experiment. The £1000 is for a boardman bike. The 49p is for a box of pins...

Just on the subject of cars, and in responce to bigjim. I think thats a tad unfair, my Dad has worked very hard and now has 2 Aston Martins, but he is genuinely the nicest, kindest and generous man you could ever meet!! I think its the people who have their cars on finance and costing more a month than their mortgage who are the silly ones, and probably the ones with the personality like you said.
You can almost spot a knob by what they are driving, but it doesnt mean that everyone with an expensive car is a .

Yeah well obviously I was generalising, I would still say I imagine most people that drive status cars like range rover sports, bmw x5/6's, and a good proportion of 'normal' bmw/audi etc drivers, are the kind of people whose faces I would like to push into a propellor within two minutes of striking up a conversation. Even jeremy clarkson says that and he is their king.

If i was earning less than £35k a year I'd deem my life a failure and on £35k a year then £4k is easily affordable.

I'd deem my life a failure if the amount that I earned was a feature of my own sucess criteria.

If you teach yourself some basic bike mechanic skills you can buy yourself a second hand perfectly decent bike for around 300 quid and slowly upgrade bits as they break or when you see a bargain and fancy something a bit shiny for sale for a decent price on the classifies/bike radar/pink bike/ebay. The cost is then spread over months and years and you can find yourself riding a bike a few years later which is still [i]your[/i] bike to you but is totally different from the one you started with.
The only original parts on my hardtail from the bike I started with are the seatpost, shifters and rear mech.

and how can anyone justify charging £115 for a chain device??

Having read the majority of this thread it appears that bikes in Eastbourne are expensive due to the LBS's not wanting to employ failures, hence paying rather attractive salaries to (non-failure type) employees and perhaps rather good incentives such as discounts to staff on 4k+ bikes. This obviously needs to be funded so bikes bought locally are a tad on the high side...

Spend what you can afford to get the bike you like.

Good MTBs are certainly expensive. But look at what you get these days for your money. I remember really wanting a GT BMX back in the early 80s. IIRC they were over £300. And that translates to about £800 today. And that's way less sophisticated than a 2010 £800 MTB let alone a £3500 MTB.

The price of parts is high because of a variety of economic factors. Manufacturers get big discounts on parts for buying a guaranteed quantity of a particular spec at a set time in bulk. Also, retail parts have a bunch of packaging, marketing and often spec differences from the parts that come on a bike.

[b]m4dmatt[/b] - indeed
I wouldn't mind the bikes in Eastbourne being expensive, and the poster linking to that shop being so sneering on this thread, if I hadn't had such gobsmackingly incompetent service from them on two occasions 2-3 years ago. Generally I'd rather avoid naming and shaming shops. There are often 2 sides to a story. But to use his own words - I'd rather stick pins in my eyes that go in there ever again.

you don't have to spend £2k on a bike you know. If your careful in choice a cheaper one may be just as much fun.For example a Spesh pitch or on-one.

I was out today on my £300 bike and having a blast. Though it's still a bit OTT with its carbon parts, I could've built it for £200 and it'd still be ace. Join me in the second hand rigid fork 1x9 carrera niche!

OTOH if my Hemlock owes me a penny under 2 grand I'd be surprised. Then again it's ace.

Quality thread this... 😆

rip off sport yes.

i was told by a cerain rider,that its the IT-trail centre doods with flash bikes are what keeps mountainbiking going.

special77
Bikes aren't expensive. Cars aren't precision made and are incredibly basic really.

To get shocks all round on my car (TVR) that have the adjustment of my bike shocks would be around £4k so there's a good comparison.

😮

Just caught up with this one week on.

Car's aren't precision made? Have you looked at the latest engines and the tolerances that are involved in building them? Watch the Discovery programme on the building of the Audi A8 to see precision work in action.

As for £1k per corner for TVR shocks? Think 3-way Nitrons or GAZ and you aren't even getting anywhere near that price. Where are you getting your suspension fitted?

Expensive bikes? Yes and no. It is all relative. But in the MTB world, IMHO, the more you spend, the more you do get. It is expensive, but it retains the value. I can't say the same for the world of cars.

you can build up a really, REALLY nice/good bike, mtb or road, pretty new 2nd hand for far less than a grand. Easy. I do wonder about people spending 1000's on a spanking new bike. (waits for lottery win).

erm, If you've got it, buy it, why not! Just ride the ****in thing!

best thing iv read in ages!! hahaha
TVR, my mate who has one told my mrs the other day quote "im out in the TVR" she turned to me and said "wots a TVR?" TVR drivers must all be cocks!! haha
btw im a BMW driver and im a sucsses by the seem of it even with no gcse's or or A levels!! why are people so hung up on money and status really gets to me sometimes.
but onto bikes,i seen the costing on bikes etc and the mark-up on them in the shop is stupidly high.i import timber and only look at making around 15% off builders merchants which is less than half of the margin they make. my bikes does cost a few grand but its never worth it when u look but thats my opinion.

Currently I do earn more than 35k and frankly as a measure of success its like jumping off a curb. Your life must be awful if you think that you can measure succes with your pay check. Particulalry on an MTB forum! I read posts all the time from people who earn less and ride more and i think they are the winners.

I'm not saying my life is a disaster I'm doing the morgage and family thing which is fine. I still get away on holiday loads and do lots of things I love. Just wish I had a bit more energy for bike riding. My last bike cost £800 FS (used but only ridden once used by the previous owner). I love it part form the rear brake

Ironically I'm glad I bought cheap cars and bikes when I culd have afforded something flash. I saved up the money for travel. I drove to Tanzania with some mates in a lorry (£2200 each for 8 months all in). My wife and I did a round the world trip cycling in the US and New Zealand, Treking in Nepal. The idea that I might have stayed at home with a custom frome and a Peaugoet 206 GTI apauls me

I really like the new Orange 5 but by the time I've added all the extra's to the spec list your talking almost £3500 for mountain bike, that's more than my car.

So If you go to a premuim brand, click on the top spec and then click on loads options its expensive. What a surprise. Try doing that when your buying a car, it won't be under £3,500

I think bikes are expensive for 3 reasons

People care about and notice small changes in weight, stiffness damping etc (more so than cars driven on roads)

people love to dream and buy bikes to support their dreams not there riding

Lots of peole can afford to aspire to top of the range. So they see top of the range around them all the time and get to try it

we all free to make our choices. Spend as you fit. Out at Woburn we stopped for my mate on his £200 Giant (and on his first trip off road) he applogised and said he'd fallen off and got his leg pinned under alog and couldn't move, it took hime ages too riggle out, the last guy to arrive was on a top spec Orange ST4 but rather unfit. But if he's happy then let him be happy

an interesting read..

£1399.99 for an orange 5 frame, made in halifax and supported by a retail network, is good vfm. it's a well-evolved bike from a small brand. if you were looking for a highly profitable business to buy i doubt orange or any other bike brand outside of the big 3 would be high on the list. people invest in bikes as they have a great future, not high profits at the moment.

instead of asking 'why are bikes expensive', i'd ask 'why is the £ so stuffed against other currencies now?' and 'why do people feel that they need a £3500 bike?' - inflation is everywhere; expensive bikes are nice to ride and keep brands in business, as MTBing is a small industry compared to the level of R+D expense that can go into it. It's great for the industry that people like bikes enough to spend £2000+ if they can afford them, but don't believe you need more than £500-800 to have fun.

keeping up with your mates is a big incentive to buy performance ) i ride on my own a fair bit and i'm back to appreciating the fun of simple, rigid bikes for solo rides, just like the bikes i grew up on. riding is no more or less fun to me now than it was when i was 12, and that's a really pleasing thought. in fact the less i worry about wear and tear of pricey kit, the more i enjoy just riding the thing.

keeping up with your mates is a big incentive to buy performance ) i ride on my own a fair bit and i'm back to appreciating the fun of simple, rigid bikes for solo rides, just like the bikes i grew up on. riding is no more or less fun to me now than it was when i was 12, and that's a really pleasing thought. in fact the less i worry about wear and tear of pricey kit, the more i enjoy just riding the thing.

well put.

There is certainly no point stretching to buy something expensive and then worrying about it, disaster.

I remeber the letters page in MBUK use have kids writting in about their bike with 2 bits of XTR up grades and a bust wheel they couldn't afford to fix. Much better to hold back aittle cash for repairs than over stretch and be left with a posh bike you can't ride

Sounds like you all need to invest in a turbo-trainer: getting out much??

Its always good to see how these threads go in whatever direction !! But getting back to the original point why are bikes so expensive? I dont think one person has answered this yet and i suspect we all agree they are!!

Having looked at the canyon bikes website, I have my suspicions.