Insanely expensive bikes

[mustang1]

Well surely there are three factors at play here. One is the professional bikes are not the same as retail bikes and then they are frequently changed. Any CF bike being professionally raced would be scanned for manufacturing faults etc. A normal rider is unlikely to have a car following him with a change of bike ready for him. A normal rider is unlikely to have his bike scanned after a minor accident and the bike they are riding will be general factory production even if the same moulds are used its unlikely to have the same level of attention to detail during manufacture. I honestly can't see Cervelo pro bikes having the terrible voids, wrinkles and poor tolerances as discovered by Hambini and Luescher Technik on retail bikes.

It's all about probabilities anyway there are probably a lot more failed CF frames by Giant than Cervelo anyway as Giant sell a huge amount of CF bikes. If 3% of Cervelo frames and forks fail compared to only 0.1% of Giant frames and forks that is still going to be mean a lot more Giant failures.

I thought the whole point of those super expensive bikes (£15k or whatever the latest price index is) are the same ones that pro teams use, and that's why they are expensive. If the pro-bikes are different, then there's no point having high priced retail bikes?

 

[vickster]

In 1999 I spent£2000 on a Dura Ace equipped Bianch xl ev2. And it was in a sale too.
One of my close relatives scoffed at the amount of money I'd spent and tried to make out that I was wealthy enough to splash that kind of money on a push bike. He was smoking 40 fags a day which annually was about £2000. When I pointed this out his response was that I was lucky enough to just have a spare £2000. Didn't quite get the saving up bit.
In the late 90s a decent winter/ audax bike was around £800. Today a Tiagra equipped Tifosi can still be bought from a uk shop for £800.
For your average weekend warrior anything more than Shimano 105 7000 series is superfluous in performance terms.
IMO, should someone wish to spend £10000 on a bike that's fine and it's their business. However, in terms of cycling performance, anything more than £3000 is not likely to be of a real benefit.

Many cyclists aren't necessarily interested in cycling performance though (whatever that is, my average speed in built up areas is pretty similar regardless of the bike, traffic and weather are a much bigger influence over my speed as well as my innate athletic ability [or lack of])
...I have just grown to like certain things in a bike (like good steel or Ti frames, SRAM groupsets) and they tend to be more costly

 

[Alex321]

I thought the whole point of those super expensive bikes (£15k or whatever the latest price index is) are the same ones that pro teams use, and that's why they are expensive. If the pro-bikes are different, then there's no point having high priced retail bikes?

It isn't that the pro bikes are different as such, just that they may well have been scanned (by the teams) to be sure there aren't any hidden faults (with any that do being rejected by the teams), while the retail ones won't have had that.

They will have been produced from the same mould, using the same techniques, they will then just have had the best ones selected.

 

[Sittingduck]

The OP has a lot to answer for starting this thread... what a doo doo stirrer

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

....... in terms of cycling performance, anything more than £3000 is not likely to be of a real benefit.

I sort of get where you are coming from but once the old stock is gone this price rules out Di2.

Pre COVID there were bikes with carbon frame/forks and Di2 at around £2.5k but these had plenty of cost cutting measures to get to that price, £120 wheels, 105 or R Series parts etc and they weren't the big names.

Now the Specialized Roubaix Comp comes in at £3.7k with mechanical Ultegra, Trek do the Domane SL6 with mechanical Ultegra at £3.9k and SRAM eTap at £4.3k.

Ribble do have an offering that would come in under £3k but that has an Aug/Sep 2022 delivery date!

Bye

Ian

 

[Alex321]

Good morning,

I sort of get where you are coming from but once the old stock is gone this price rules out Di2.

It would, but for most of us, Di2 is a "nice" luxury rather than something that gives real benefit.

 

[jowwy]

However, in terms of cycling performance, anything more than £3000 is not likely to be of a real benefit.

its not always about the performance though.......some got handmade frames that cost nearly that alone

 

[Dogtrousers]

It would, but for most of us, Di2 is a "nice" luxury rather than something that gives real benefit.

Isn't niceness a real benefit in its own right?

I mean, I could eat KFC but it's horrible so I choose other options that are nice. I see that as a real benefit.

 

[Nebulous]

That cant have helped......

It didn't. Fortunately it helped my argument that the tarmac needed to stay inside.......

 

[jowwy]

It didn't. Fortunately it helped my argument that the tarmac needed to stay inside.......

i used to have a Tarmac Sl4, was a cracking bike with Zipp 202 wheelset........which combined was over 3k

 

[JhnBssll]

Whilst I am undeniably an advocate of spending all of your earnings on bicycles there is something to be said about the quality of some expensive frames... My Bianchi XR4 Tavolozza frameset is an absolute joy to ride and is without doubt the nicest bike I've ever had the opportunity of riding but one of the bottle cage mounts is decidedly wonky... This was reported to them shortly after I built it up about 18 months ago and I'm still awaiting the replacement they promised me at the time. It seems like a crazy thing to warranty a frame for to most people but whilst it rides beautifully the wonky cage really upsets my OCD. When you finally justify the spend to yourself and you receive something less than perfect for your hard earned cash it's a bit galling

First world problems I know

 

[Arrowfoot]

what people spend on bikes or anything else for that matter is no ones business but their own, they do not need to justify it to anyone else, i dont understand the need for criticism of someones spending habits as it doesnt affect me in any way.
having said that .....i hear that @SkipdiverJohn is in resus having read the thread.

Actually it does not work like that.

People will always form a view. And that view is based on not how much you spend but what you spent it on. If you buy a painting with a valuation of £200k and paid £230k, that is priced accordingly. But if you bought a bike for £30K, it will naturally become a conversation piece.

And it does not matter if the bike owner is a millionaire or a salaried journeyman.

On the hand if you bought a corner cafe for £50k but it failed miserably, there is always respect for people who made an attempt to better their lives.

Humans are the apex creature because they have the ability to form opinions on information they gather better than any other creature.

 

[Alex321]

Isn't niceness a real benefit in its own right?

I mean, I could eat KFC but it's horrible so I choose other options that are nice. I see that as a real benefit.

Niceness is, but here the post I was responding to was in turn responding to "in terms of cycling performance ... ".

 

[cougie uk]

Or maybe, like me, they ride all their bikes all year round and simply clean and maintain them properly and suffer zero accelerated degradation as a result?

In our climate there is nothing as useles as an outdoor item that cannot/will not be used in bad westher.

Riding through crud and grit on the road will have a higher wear rate than riding the same distance in summer. Sure you can ride a superbike all year round but there's better bikes for winter. A dry bum is nice in the winter.

 

[Milzy]

I figure that by the time you factor in maintenances after a crappy winter and a possible slip on a winter roads - you're better off getting a decent winter bike. Plus that will take full guards so it will be a nicer drier ride.

They are also very strong riders so if I turn up on a winter bike I’m at another disadvantage. Theirs always that one ego who wants to drop you.