Insanely expensive bikes

[All uphill]

My bikes haven't generally cost much to buy, but my habit of modifying can add quite a bit over a period of weeks and months.

My new bike from Spa was meant to be perfect for me, but after three months I have already changed bar end plugs and want new handlebars.

 

[cougie uk]

7 grand on a bike is hardly insanely expensive.
I mean it's way above the average but I'm sure most pro riders bikes are more than that.

I saw one of the Ineos bikes out the other week. It makes a hell of a flash winter bike.

 

[Gillstay]

Anything expensive, ie Bino's, cars, motorbikes, I buy second hand as like supercars, they are well made, well looked after and barely used.
So I would buy a expensive bike, but not the depreciation.

 

[Jenkins]

Have we had the "More money than sense" comment yet or is the usual suspect out checking in skips?

I'm with everyone else that has said spend what you want to get what you want. When some of my work colleagues expressed surprise at the £1k - £2k price tag of three of my bikes, I just asked them how much their usual 2 week holiday costs and there wasn't much difference except my bikes last longer.

 

[bonzobanana]

I get a real buzz from getting a bargain and always feel very sad if I have to spend a lot on anything so I'm wired to be a cheapskate pretty much. Also why buy a Ferrari and then put a lawn mower engine in it? I could never justify an expensive bike and I get satisfaction from using s/hand bikes as I feel that is more positive to the environment.

 

[Reynard]

Someone’s “insanely expensive“ is anothers ideal product.

Whether it be bikes, cars, watches etc.

I suspect a lot of those decry expensive items are going so out of jealousy.

Not necessarily. Just because I can afford something expensive doesn't mean I absolutely must have it.

My grandfather used to say "I'm too poor to buy cheap stuff" - and he's right. Good quality stuff - whether that's bikes or shoes or art materials or cookware - lasts, and I don't mind spending money where it's warranted. But there's a big difference between good quality and paying over the odds for a "name" just for the sake of it.

 

[DCLane]

As others have put it depends on what you define as "insanely expensive".

I've posted on here that my son races, and some of the bikes used go well above the £7k equivalent you've stated. £10k+ for a TT / road / track / hillclimb bike isn't uncommon at some of the race events we do.

He's got a new Ridley Noah Fast disc-brake race bike that arrived late last year, part-funded by sponsors, which retails at over £6k. Add in bespoke carbon race wheels, plus two other pairs of lightweight carbon / aluminium training wheels and a range of other alterations he's made (better bottom bracket, cranks, chainrings, rear mech changes) and it's way over the £7k you've stated. But ... it'll be used for racing in the UK and in Europe this year and is his first "new" bike since 2016 instead of racing on second-hand purchases.

However, to keep things in balance he did do a time-trial on Jan 1st on the Carlton I originally bought for £4

 

[PaulSB]

I can't say I've ever thought of something as insanely expensive. We do have a saying in our household which is "a ridiculous amount of money.' I'm not sure if this is the same meaning.

I have three bikes; a five year old Cervelo, originally £3100, which would cost £5-6000+ to replace given the upgrades I've made; a one year old titanium Kinesis, £3200, as my winter/gravel bike; a secondhand Cannondale which I grabbed from a friend for £500. So a range of costs. I can afford to replace each or all but it's unlikely I would. My Cervelo is still a fabulous bike and in trying to replace her I believe I would struggle to find anything as good. The Kinesis is my forever bike. The Cannondale the go to when I don't need my winter bike but don't want to ride the summer bike.

I'm 67 and my plan is to continue to upgrade my Cervelo with a view to getting another five years from her when I will think about a change. Then I'll be 72 and my needs could be different. With good maintenance and upgrades if needed the Kinesis will easily give me ten years and beyond. I'll be 77 so who knows. I regard these purchases as sound investments in my hobby, sport, health and social life. To put this in perspective my wife's gym and tennis club membership costs £1250 per annum and gives her the same benefits. I argue for less than three years membership each bike has given me something with at least a ten year life. A very sound investment.

If I had to replace the Cervelo I think I'd feel uncomfortable with spending £5000+. I could justify it but not feel comfortable, if that makes sense?

The next purchase I have in mind is a high end e-bike. When? I don't know. At 67 I'm aware the time is approaching when I might want some assistance. It could be one year, I hope it's ten or more. At that point I'll happily spend £££££ to continue enjoying the wonderful riding which is central to my enjoyment of life.

So given all this I have to wonder why the OP views other people's spending as insane. I don't.

 

[kingrollo]

Due to my asthma I'm not the greatest cyclist. Most people who train for a few months get faster than me.

However cycling helps with my mental health, blood pressure and weight management. - who can put a price on that ?

So yes I spend way more than I need to on bikes. I think I can justify it.

 

[bonzobanana]

Someone’s “insanely expensive“ is anothers ideal product.

Whether it be bikes, cars, watches etc.

I suspect a lot of those decry expensive items are going so out of jealousy.

Some high end bikes are actually appalling quality and unsafe. If you have ever watched the videos of Luescher Technik on youtube who is a carbon fibre engineer you can see him analyse many high end frames to see their manufacturing quality is actually extremely poor. There is no direct link between high pricing and high quality. Then you have to factor in if a product is suitable for your tasks. What good to me is a performance road bike with reduced component life and more problematic design when I'm doing general cycling and locking my bike outside a Tesco express etc. Most cyclists have zero use for a high end performance road bike. If I won such a bike in a competition it would be on ebay or facebook marketplace within minutes pretty much. However I'm still very much interested in what is happening at the high end of bicycle models but can honestly say I have zero interest in ever having such a bike. What I would like that money would provide is a larger house in a better location, larger garden etc or be able to do more travelling. It's like mountain biking, I don't really do extreme mountain biking just light off-road cycling at a leisurely pace to explore off-road. So I don't need high end suspension because I would be having to service it frequently and wouldn't really benefit from it for the light off-road I do that is only marginally worse than what a gravel bike could cope with. I've got front suspension on a mountain bike I use but I'm thinking of replacing them with rigid forks.

I think cycling is more about the right tool for the job rather than high end being actually better because in many instances its actually far worse and would be the wrong tool for the job. Obviously if you are a competitive cyclist obsessed with going fast and achieving faster times then a high end bike might be something you would get jealous about if you couldn't afford one though. I just think for the vast majority of cyclists high end bikes are actually a poor choice. Also they sell in extremely low numbers. The average price of a bike sold in the UK is about £380 and that has shot up from about £200 because of the rise of ebikes. As you can imagine £380 pretty much means very few high end bikes are sold its a tiny niche of the market. I noticed on the statistics that in Italy the average price of a bike sold is actually significantly less than the UK, Germany and France and their bike industry is mainly export focused and even the UK is significantly less than Germany. For every £1 spent in cycling in the UK 25p is spent at Halfords and its estimated that 4 in 10 bikes sold in the UK are bought from Halfords (obviously Halfords bikes tend to at the value end typically). That's almost half of all bikes coming out of Halfords. I think Carrera's and Apollo's make up the bulk of sales. I do think Halford's bike sales are slightly skewed more towards mountain bike sales but I've not seen any statistics that support that but their shops always have a lot more mountain bike type models.

Just making the point high end bikes aren't really significant in the marketplace at all, they are really show models for the brand that very few people will ever buy. They are like diamond encrusted toilet brushes not really relevant to most people. So it doesn't really matter if bikes are £12k, £20k or even £30k at the top end because they don't really have any significance in the market place. I would imagine the £800-2k price bracket is where the real action is in retail for road bikes.

 

[alex_cycles]

They are like diamond encrusted toilet brushes not really relevant to most people. So it doesn't really matter if bikes are £12k, £20k or even £30k at the top end because they don't really have any significance in the market place. I would imagine the £800-2k price bracket is where the real action is in retail for road bikes.

I'm looking forward to telling my mate with a nice Cervelo that his bike is a diamond-encrusted toilet brush.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

The answer is clear to me.

• When you don't use it because you are scared of the cost of an accident or wear and tear.
• When something more important to you, your family or friends is put off to buy or maintain the bike.

I feel that over the last 40 odd years or so we have become used to super cheap products based on imports where the lifestyle of those people making those products is significantly worse than ours, so a £3k bike seems super expensive.

If you inflation adjust a 531 Team Raleigh with Campag Super Record from the 1970/1980s they come out at around £3k in today's money.

They had a pretty basic steel frames, despite all of the marketing to suggest something to the contrary, and pretty basic aluminium alloy and steel parts. So a bike with CF frame and wheels and electronic shifting could be expected to cost a bit more that this.

Yet this sort of bike back then wouldn't have been considered way over the top for most club riders.

I was gutted to find out that the original 753 team bikes were actually made on a production line, okay it was a small line, one guy would build the bottom bracket area and another guy do different joins and possibly a third guy some more. As a 753 frame was very difficult to bend into shape when complete, sorry cold set, each joint needed to be fully cooled down before the next one was made to avoid tension from shrinkage. What this did mean was that the frames had a quite short build time as each person was up to speed on his bit of the batch.

For me the only time that it would be any business of anyone else would be if the purchaser has dramatically misunderstood what he thinks that he is buying compared with what he actually is buying. Has weighs 300lbs, has bought a £10k team bike and wants to mount a seat post rack to carry some shopping on a Saturday, Specialized have tended to have something like a 240lbs weight limit so he would be in big trouble

Bye

Ian

 

[Cycleops]

@bonzobanana ‘Diamond encrusted toilet brushes’. I like that. Pretty much sums it up as far as I’m concerned, but if people are happy buying them that’s absolutely fine.

 

[bonzobanana]

I'm looking forward to telling my mate with a nice Cervelo that his bike is a diamond-encrusted toilet brush.

I'm fairly sure Cervelo frames and forks have been picked apart by both Luescher Technik and Hambini for very poor manufacturing standards. Voids and other issues in the layup of the fibres and very poor tolerances. The brand actually uses a fairly poor quality Chinese factory from what I understand from those videos. It's never about what something costs to make its always about what someone is prepared to pay so suffice to say Cervelo definitely like to operate with a very high profit margin and good luck to them but I will never ever buy their products however rich I become.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hambini+cervelo

 

[gzoom]

When some of my work colleagues expressed surprise at the £1k - £2k price tag of three of my bikes, I just asked them how much their usual 2 week holiday costs and there wasn't much difference except my bikes last lonr.

£1-2k for a family holiday abroad in half term is a bargain these days. 4 nights in Nottingham Center Parcs is £1200 for their cheapest accommodation. A ski holiday in Europe is easily £5k+.