How much is too much?

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B

bagpuss

Guru
Location
derby
Someone once said to me ," Its no good having a £1,000 bike if you have only got £100 pair of legs! .....things have gone up since then .
Then again I have never had my legs valued? .I say have the bike you will get the most pleasure from . We are only riding on this earth for a short time .
 
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CharleyFarley

CharleyFarley

Senior Member
Location
Japan
I buy what I fancy, but if the price tag is more than £729.30, then I no longer fancy it. Why that price? Well, I'm in the USA, and those pounds work out to $1,000. I made an exception when I bought a Specialized Fatboy for £1294 ($1700). I had already bought a Sun fat bike for £600 before I realized I should have broken the bank and got the Specialized. The Sun bike had a hub gear (3, I think) but had a lug for a derailleur. Before I took it home, I paid the bike shop to customize it with a derailleur for an extra £75. It wasn't good, and the Sun company said that it wasn't made to take a derailleur even though it had a lug for one. I've had this fatty for 4 1/2 years and put 10,000 miles (16000 km) on it.

In the meanwhile I took a fancy to a bike shop quality 7-speed Electra beach cruiser for £365. I modified it with metal mudguards, replaced the crazy MegaRange freewheel with a 14-28 freewheel, and changed the crankset for one which I could put a smaller chain ring on it. Put narrow bars on it, and swapped the twist shifter for a lever type. Also put an adjustable quill stem on it to bring the bars closer to me.

I think I'm settled, now, meaning no more bikes. I'm too old to consider any more. Judging by the prices I'm seeing on this page, I think bikes in the US are cheaper than in the UK.
 
CharleyFarley

CharleyFarley

Senior Member
Location
Japan
biggs682 said:
Never spent more than £450
Current most expensive one cost me is £240
No way could i justify much more even though i can afford it
Click to expand...

I went low, about three years ago, with a Schwinn 3rd Avenue, 700C, 21-speed. It was £138 but it came with a lot of good reviews. (Beware of lots of good reviews.) I didn't expect much for that kind of money, so I wasn't disappointed when it came. Out of the box, it looked good. Put it together, and then found neither of the tires would stay inflated, both going down in seconds. The tubes were made of some kind of gritty material and wouldn't take a patch. They were also much too small to fit the tires. Pumping them up was what caused them to burst. The tires had barely discernible treads and were 'hairy.' So down to the bike shop for new tires and tubes.

While out on a ride, about seven miles from home, the front derailleur came loose and rubbed against the chain. The pinch bolt just rounded off when I put a wrench to it, so I had to bend it away from the chain to get home.

The saddle was a piece of junk so I replaced it with a good one. The twist shifters were very poor so I swapped them for levers. After getting mucky rain water splashed up my back I put mudguards on it. Next, I bought a wheel truing stand and a spoke tension gauge because the wheels were out of true. By time I was done, I had a good bike but at a high cost. Then when I tried to part exchange it for a new bike in a bike shop, they refused it because it had to be "bike shop quality." Schwinn was once a good brand in the USA but that is no longer the case.

They say you get what you pay for. I suppose you do, but I sold that Schwinn and went to the bike shop to get my £365 "bike shop quality" beach cruiser. At 960 km both wheels started to grind and I had to replace the ball bearings. Then the headset got me concerned because if I stood next to the bike and turned the steering from side to side, it had what felt like a detent in the straight ahead position. I pulled it apart and found the problem was dirty and inadequate grease. The bearings were good, otherwise. So new grease fixed that problem.

At least I can do these things, myself, and don't have to keep running to the bike shop.
 
Gibbo9

Gibbo9

Veteran
Location
Taipei City, Taiwan
I have now managed to buy the new bike I was looking for. I really took my time in shopping around and eventually plumped for a Pinarello Prince FX with Di2 disc and a few other add ons. Total cost was just shy of 6k. Has it been worth it? Absolutely every single penny.

I have been amazed at the difference between this and my old bike (Kuota Kobalt). The handling and pick up speed is what has shocked me the most, the new bike reacts immediately to everything I ask it to do. Now I am 50 years old so I am never going to break any speed records but prior to getting the new bike I took the old one out on a few favourite routes to set quick times (for me). I have just this morning done one of those routes on the new bike, at a distance of only 18km I managed to take over 4 minutes off my best time while riding the new bike.

For me though it's not about trying to go fast but more enjoying the ride. It's very hilly where I am so I need something to get me up without killing me and down safely. This new bike does that and it is an absolute joy to ride.
 
PaulSB

PaulSB

Legendary Member
Location
Chorley, Lancashire
CharleyFarley said:
I went low, about three years ago, with a Schwinn 3rd Avenue, 700C, 21-speed. It was £138 but it came with a lot of good reviews. (Beware of lots of good reviews.) I didn't expect much for that kind of money, so I wasn't disappointed when it came. Out of the box, it looked good. Put it together, and then found neither of the tires would stay inflated, both going down in seconds. The tubes were made of some kind of gritty material and wouldn't take a patch. They were also much too small to fit the tires. Pumping them up was what caused them to burst. The tires had barely discernible treads and were 'hairy.' So down to the bike shop for new tires and tubes.

While out on a ride, about seven miles from home, the front derailleur came loose and rubbed against the chain. The pinch bolt just rounded off when I put a wrench to it, so I had to bend it away from the chain to get home.

The saddle was a piece of junk so I replaced it with a good one. The twist shifters were very poor so I swapped them for levers. After getting mucky rain water splashed up my back I put mudguards on it. Next, I bought a wheel truing stand and a spoke tension gauge because the wheels were out of true. By time I was done, I had a good bike but at a high cost. Then when I tried to part exchange it for a new bike in a bike shop, they refused it because it had to be "bike shop quality." Schwinn was once a good brand in the USA but that is no longer the case.

They say you get what you pay for. I suppose you do, but I sold that Schwinn and went to the bike shop to get my £365 "bike shop quality" beach cruiser. At 960 km both wheels started to grind and I had to replace the ball bearings. Then the headset got me concerned because if I stood next to the bike and turned the steering from side to side, it had what felt like a detent in the straight ahead position. I pulled it apart and found the problem was dirty and inadequate grease. The bearings were good, otherwise. So new grease fixed that problem.

At least I can do these things, myself, and don't have to keep running to the bike shop.
Click to expand...
With respect what do you expect from bikes sold at these prices? I don't know anything of taxation or retailing in the States but these prices are so low there's no money to pay for any quality parts.

In the UK we have VAT which is a sales tax of 20%. Retailers in my experience operate on margins in the region of 50% and upwards.

Schwinn wholesale cost £80 +50% retail margin = £120 + VAT 20% = £140

The wholesale cost of £80 would include manufacturing costs, distribution cost and wholesale margin. It's impossible to make a bike of any quality for these sums.
 
G

gzoom

Über Member
Interesting to see unless you can smash out over 25mph average all the fancy expensive aero stuff on bikes pretty much makes no difference....so its really a case of working on the legs:laugh:
 
CharleyFarley

CharleyFarley

Senior Member
Location
Japan
PaulSB said:
With respect what do you expect from bikes sold at these prices? I don't know anything of taxation or retailing in the States but these prices are so low there's no money to pay for any quality parts.
Click to expand...
Like I said, I didn't expect much for the money. I knew what I'd be getting into.

PaulSB said:
In the UK we have VAT which is a sales tax of 20%. Retailers in my experience operate on margins in the region of 50% and upwards.
Click to expand...
I lived in the UK for the first 32 years of my life and I was well aware of the time they removed purchase tax and started VAT. The one thing they didn't remove PT from was petrol, which was already a huge tax. Then they added VAT to that so we paid tax on a tax. And when I mentioned it to people, they looked at me as though I was nuts. It probably explains why petrol in the UK is so expensive.

PaulSB said:
The wholesale cost of £80 would include manufacturing costs, distribution cost and wholesale margin. It's impossible to make a bike of any quality for these sums.
Click to expand...
I fully understand that such a low cost for a bike would be low quality. I knew that when I ordered it, with the understanding that it would need work. If I'd had to take it to a bike shop to have the work done, I wouldn't have bought it. I also said in my O.P. to beware of lots of good reviews. That's a pretty good sign of shills trying to sell a poor quality product.

There was a website set up to judge pages of reviews, and these Amazon reviews were judged as false, needing caution. I found that website after I'd bought the bike, but I was suspicious of the reviews before I bought it. So I put the work into upgrading the Schwinn and when I was done, it was a good bike. I'd even go so far as to say it was as good as an equivalent bike shop quality bike with the same components. I took a friend to the LBS and he chose a comfort bike, paying $600 (£440) for it. The thing is, my Schwinn was an experiment to see what I'd get for the money, and what it would cost to make it into a good bike. The experience I gained from upgrading it was worth it.
 
CharleyFarley

CharleyFarley

Senior Member
Location
Japan
PaulSB said:
...I don't know anything of taxation or retailing in the States but these prices are so low there's no money to pay for any quality parts.

In the UK we have VAT which is a sales tax of 20%.
Click to expand...
Our sales tax is 6% plus 1% for public transport, making a total of 7%. I used to live in Delaware with no sales tax.
 
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