More money than sense?

[bikeman66]

I guess we all know it's possible to spend some serious money on bikes and kit, but reading a feature on carbon wheel sets today, I saw a pair of Lightweight Obermeyer wheels priced at £4,199.

OK they were pretty light, and very sexy looking, and I appreciate the research and development that goes in to products, but over four grand for a couple of wheels??? I simply can't fathom how they can arrive at a price like that, and is there anyone on this planet that would be able to tell the difference between a £4k pair and a £1.5k pair.

As I'd love to be in a position to justify spending that kind of money on a complete bike, my question is, is a £4,000 wheel set ever worth shelling out for, or are they purely for folk with more money than sense and and lottery winners?

 

[blazed]

I guess we all know it's possible to spend some serious money on bikes and kit, but reading a feature on carbon wheel sets today, I saw a pair of Lightweight Obermeyer wheels priced at £4,199.

OK they were pretty light, and very sexy looking, and I appreciate the research and development that goes in to products, but over four grand for a couple of wheels??? I simply can't fathom how they can arrive at a price like that, and is there anyone on this planet that would be able to tell the difference between a £4k pair and a £1.5k pair.

As I'd love to be in a position to justify spending that kind of money on a complete bike, my question is, is a £4,000 wheel set ever worth shelling out for, or are they purely for folk with more money than sense and and lottery winners?

They're for people who can afford them. It's not only wealthy people who spend £4k on wheels, a lot of people on average salaries spend huge amounts of money on their hobbies. I've never got the term more money than sense, people with lots of money usually have lots of sense as that is how they accumulated their wealth. It's more likely poor people who lack sense.

 

[screenman]

They must have something going for them if they can afford thst much.

Just because somebody spends money on something I could not justify does not in my mind make them fools.

 

[simon.r]

You could argue the same point for lots of things - the difference between a £500 hi-if and a £5,000 hi-if, between a £40k car and a £200k car, a £20 pair of jeans and a £100 pair...

Each to their own.

 

[Hip Priest]

One man's extravagance is another man's pocket money. I couldn't justify spending £4k on a bike, let alone a wheelset, but most people would regard spending £500+ on a bike as an incredible luxury. Some people can afford to blow 30 grand on a bar bill in one night.

 

[Cuchilo]

Wheels are where its at ! My race wheels are worth more than the bike i put them on . In fact my training wheels are hand built and worth more than the bike i race on .
I need a new race bike !

 

[loveandpeace1]

Beluga Caviar at £24,000 a tin, a £2,000 plane meal and coffee at £325 a cup.
Because they can

 

[Accy cyclist]

I wonder how these http://www.ubyk.co.uk/lightweight-meilenstein-obermayer-tubular-wheelset/14926 wheels would stand up to a pot holed journey everyday?

 

[midlife]

The guy who taught me implant teeth charges £60,000 a set. He arrived by helicopter.........

Shaun

 

[puffinbilly]

One man's extravagance is another man's pocket money. I couldn't justify spending £4k on a bike, let alone a wheelset, but most people would regard spending £500+ on a bike as an incredible luxury. Some people can afford to blow 30 grand on a bar bill in one night.

sssssssssshhh...ssssssssssssshshssshhsss

 

[Sbudge]

In my experience the cost of incremental performance improvements (whether it's a wheel, a server, a car etc) are not linear. So you get a huge improvement from stock wheels on a bike by spending £350 but to really move the needle again it might cost you £1,500 and then again etc.

I agree £4000 on a pair of wheels seems a fortune but I know fishermen who spend that sort of money in a year on tackle etc. I've friends who don't earn much but spend a fortune (to me) every weekend going to clubs etc. £100 a week on entertainment? Crazy to me. £4000 wheels to them? Madness. Each to their own.

 

[Tim Hall]

I wonder how these http://www.ubyk.co.uk/lightweight-meilenstein-obermayer-tubular-wheelset/14926 wheels would stand up to a pot holed journey everyday?

They also developed a compleatly new hub for the front wheel, this allowed them to reduce the weight of the Meilenstein Obermayer by a total of 25 grams while at the same time doubling its rigidity and thus agility in a completely new dimension.

Two things:
If I'm spending over four grand on a pair of wheels, I'd expect the advert to be spelt correctly. Compleatly, FFS. Who wrote that? Izaak Walton?

25g is about an ounce. They've saved an ounce at the cost of four grand. That's more expensive than cocaine.

 

[Sbudge]

I've seen (but not ridden) a set of these 'in the flesh' and I must say that something about those flat blade carbon 'spokes' just felt wrong...but then the man in the shop said they're wonderful so they must be, no?

 

[ColinJ]

I've got more sense than money, which worries me far more than other people's money-to-sense ratio!

 

[vickster]

I've got more sense than money, which worries me far more than other people's money-to-sense ratio!

Makes you pretty unusual amongst the males of the species unless you are extremely poor