I finally got accustomed to high prices

[Dogtrousers]

You prompted me to use an online inflation calculator!
My 1976 Puch Alpine 5 speed "racer" cost £45. It was in my mind then, a good bike, but was probably the equivalent of todays basic Carrera road bike from Halfords.
£45 in 1976 is now worth £293.

Thanks, this is exactly what I was going to do but couldn't be arsed. I had vague memories of bikes being £60-100 in the later 70s/early 80s. Roughly - ish.

The cheapest Triban bikes are £300-400 at Decathlon, as are the Carreras at Halfords. Which, given the low accuracy of this excercise, is roughly the same as the cost of your Puch at £293

I went back a bit further and found a Raleigh catalogue from 1951 and found bikes starting at around £13. £13 in 1951 is seemingly now worth £428

So it's all much of a muchness, really. Not a huge lot either way. So I guess this is why the OP has become accustomed to them - they've always been like this, more or less.

You'd probably need to take average salaries and cost of living to do it properly, and I'm not about to do that.

Edit. Ooops. I missed this post. Which already said what I've just repeated.

So it seems that prices don't seem to have changed that much if you try and compare like to like spec wise, as far as that is possible.

 

[Kingfisher101]

Buy cheap buy twice with tyres, you do get what you pay for.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Ian Smith,
Worcester,
22 December 2021.​

Re: Your previous post

Dear Mr Brandene,

Good morning.

Nice to see that your trademark greeting and sign off are back after yesterday's sloppiness, Ian.

Bye.

Brandane.

There is far too much informality on this here interweb thingy.

Let us brink back some good old fashioned conventions.

Yours sincerely

Mr Ian Smith

Sadly not all browsers can display the above as I intended

 

[bonzobanana]

I was watching this video series about buying a $100 bike and then touring with it, in Thailand. I guess this is the sort of bike you would see around £150-200 in the UK. He rode it mainly as bought even the cheesy soft rubber tyres. He isn't a particularly light rider as quite tall.

I guess from my own viewpoint I'd say a road bike between about £400-1500 is the right price for a decent spec with reasonable long lasting components that should perform well. I'd want a bike to be durable with easy to obtain components and I feel shaving off a few more kg and a few more gears is un-necessary for the extra thousands they would cost. Like most things the sensible option is neither very low pricing or high pricing, the sensible choice is somewhere in the middle. However I feel the bike industry is like the fashion or cosmetic industry in that there are high end, poor value items for those who are vulnerable to marketing and advertising who want to feel closer to professional cyclists. However there are also those cyclists who do pursue value in their purchases. You get similar bikes coming out of Asian factories, with the wrong brand its might be £1000 but with the right brand it could be £3000. I'd be buying the wrong brand myself to save £2k.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq165mQlshY

 

[vickster]

I was watching this video series about buying a $100 bike and then touring with it, in Thailand. I guess this is the sort of bike you would see around £150-200 in the UK. He rode it mainly as bought even the cheesy soft rubber tyres. He isn't a particularly light rider as quite tall.

I guess from my own viewpoint I'd say a road bike between about £400-1500 is the right price for a decent spec with reasonable long lasting components that should perform well. I'd want a bike to be durable with easy to obtain components and I feel shaving off a few more kg and a few more gears is un-necessary for the extra thousands they would cost. Like most things the sensible option is neither very low pricing or high pricing, the sensible choice is somewhere in the middle. However I feel the bike industry is like the fashion or cosmetic industry in that there are high end, poor value items for those who are vulnerable to marketing and advertising who want to feel closer to professional cyclists. However there are also those cyclists who do pursue value in their purchases. You get similar bikes coming out of Asian factories, with the wrong brand its might be £1000 but with the right brand it could be £3000. I'd be buying the wrong brand myself to save £2k.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq165mQlshY

Pretty much all bike frames come out of Asian factories (although my recent purchase is Italian, the others will have all be made in the Far East)

 

[bonzobanana]

Pretty much all bike frames come out of Asian factories (although my recent purchase is Italian, the others will have all be made in the Far East)

I realise there are a few that are geniunely made in Italy but most Italian frames are made in Asia too and many that are basically Chinese raw frames which are finished and painted in Italy get a 'Made in Italy' sticker. Some factories have both high end CF frame production and raw CF frames from Asia for cheaper models.

However from what I've seen of Luescher Technik on youtube the best CF frames come out of Taiwan typically Giant. I think the best analysed frame was a Canyon frame made by Giant. Sadly Canyon moved production to Quest Composites in mainland China who are not of the same quality.

I think Pinarello are from Carbotec in Taiwan. When Luescher Technik analysed a failed Pinarello frame it was actually quite a poor frame if I remember rightly and so many commentators complained it wasn't genuine but he later proved it was. I assume this was a Carbotec frame.

I'd personally see Italian brand CF frames as lower quality than Giant based on inferior engineering and quality typically. However I realise this is a controversial view but sponsoring races doesn't automatically make them the best engineered and manufactured frames. I guess its down your own criteria of what makes a good frame.

 

[vickster]

I realise there are a few that are geniunely made in Italy but most Italian frames are made in Asia too and many that are basically Chinese raw frames which are finished and painted in Italy get a 'Made in Italy' sticker. Some factories have both high end CF frame production and raw CF frames from Asia for cheaper models.

However from what I've seen of Luescher Technik on youtube the best CF frames come out of Taiwan typically Giant. I think the best analysed frame was a Canyon frame made by Giant. Sadly Canyon moved production to Quest Composites in mainland China who are not of the same quality.

I think Pinarello are from Carbotec in Taiwan. When Luescher Technik analysed a failed Pinarello frame it was actually quite a poor frame if I remember rightly and so many commentators complained it wasn't genuine but he later proved it was. I assume this was a Carbotec frame.

I'd personally see Italian brand CF frames as lower quality than Giant based on inferior engineering and quality typically. However I realise this is a controversial view but sponsoring races doesn't automatically make them the best engineered and manufactured frames. I guess its down your own criteria of what makes a good frame.

Mine isn't CF so...that's a long reply to my post
I own a CF bike, very rarely use it (maybe on the turbo very occasionally), I doubt very much I'll ever buy another wherever it comes from...steel and Ti only for this gal

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I think it's not just the prices that have gone up, but the additional items that have become 'essentials', such as a mobile phone contract, internet contract and Sky subscription, which all add to the shopping basket. From my youth, I'd even add fitted kitchens, bathrooms, carpets and double glazing, all that seem to 'need' changing far more often than my parents would have changed theirs.

 

[bonzobanana]

Mine isn't CF so...that's a long reply to my post
I own a CF bike, very rarely use it (maybe on the turbo very occasionally), I doubt very much I'll ever buy another wherever it comes from...steel and Ti only for this gal

I used CF reference because that is typically the Italian brand bikes you see occasionally and people pay such ridiculous money for them despite basically being a low cost Chinese frame. The margin is absolutely ridiculous just to get a Italian brand with some heritage slapped on them. Going back a few years when I knew Bianchi was using the fuji-ta factory for many of its bikes. I think for a Claris road bike the shop brands were selling fuji-ta bikes for around £300 (2016 ish), the big US brands maybe around £400-600 and Bianchi was up about £700-800. Fuji-ta are the biggest bike manufacturer in the world and while they sell many bikes of all frame materials I guess it was aluminium they really dominated with. With a huge number of brands coming out of their factories. The factory price of these bikes was about $80-100 complete and a 4x price increase is expected allowing for all the extra costs, margins, taxes, transport etc to get them to retail. Obviously some brands have a lot of marketing, advertising and sponsorship costs too. I resent the brands that have ridiculous markups. It's like french and italian perfume where the manufacturing cost is just a few pence but sells for £50 plus but the margin and advertising costs are absolutely huge. Just feels like a huge rip off to me which is often the case when they market something more in terms of lifestyle, heritage and perceived quality rather than actual quality.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yn5kIpIrv0

 

[vickster]

Jolly good.
People can spend their money however they wish imo. If you don’t want an expensive brand name bike, don’t buy one