Why are small bike bits so expensive?

[Yellow Fang]

Yesterday I went into a bike shop to buy a split link for a bicycle chain. I only had a £20 note on me and they didn't have enough change in the till. The member of staff actually let me have the chain link, saying he trusted me to pay him the next time I came back. I can't actually remember this ever happening before. Although, I felt tempted abuse his trust, I did go back as soon as I had some change. It occurred to me that it was them who were robbing me. £4 for a little bit of metal! I recently bought a whole chain for £12. This has happened other times when I've popped in to bike shops for things like bolts for STD shoes or for screwing bottle holders or panniers onto bikes. They cost £££s when a similar bolt in a hardware store only costs a few pence. Unfortunately the bolts in the hardware stores seem to have a different thread.

 

[XmisterIS]

It is, in my humble opinion, a license to print money.

I give you an example that left me almost apopleptic with rage!

I used to have a Nissan Primera Turbo back in the late 90's. One day, the starter motor went kaput, so I ordered another one. It cost about £20, no biggie, so I was happy to wait for it to arrive.

The starter motor on the Primera is underneath the engine block, so I spent ages getting the front of the car up on a set of ramps that my mate lent me, then I wiggled my way underneath the car with a socket set and a torch, only to find that the bolts holding the starter motor in had weird, asymmetrical heads on them.

I wiggled back out from under the car, and phoned the local Nissan dealer and explained the problem. They said, "Oh, yes, you need a special Nissan tool to take those bolts out. We have them here if you'd like to buy one". Then he dropped the bombshell ... "You can't buy the tools separately, you have to buy the whole kit, and it costs ...

...

...

£400!!!!!!!!!!!

It turns out that it was cheaper for me to book it in with the nissan place and have them do it, rather than buy the tool and do it myself, all for the sake of a few bolts that had been deliberately made to stop you from doing a cheap, quick DIY job.

I was absolutely f***ing livid ....

 

[Yellow Fang]

Yes, I suppose however much you have to spend on bicycles, cars are much worse.

 

[beanzontoast]

The 'little things cost a lot' phenomenon isn't confined to bikes. I was in a car accessory shop the other day and saw packets of cable ties with only about 5 in each - at the local diy shed last weekend, I saw the same length ties in packets of 50 for about the same price (and bought them).

I can't believe the little packets actually get sold, but I suppose they must for them to keep on stocking them.

 

[blubb]

If possible try to buy small stuff online. It's usually a lot cheaper.

 

[PpPete]

You can buy small quantities of most of the sizes bolts you need on a bike from online suppliers such Namrick.
A selection of lengths in stainless M5 (and a few M4) will only set you back a few quid, and will cover most bike requirements. Not SPD cleat bolts admittedly, but they are quite an unusual pattern.

 

[Fozz]

a fair few years ago a motorbike mag built a ZX6R out of off the shelf parts the bike in a show room would have cost around 6.5k, the spare parts bike was 23k!!! supply line and storage costs where cited as the main reasons

if you built,for example my airlite 100 which i paid 300 quid for but RRP`s for 500, i`m sure it would be the thick end of £1000......

 

[PK99]

The 'little things cost a lot' phenomenon isn't confined to bikes. I was in a car accessory shop the other day and saw packets of cable ties with only about 5 in each - at the local diy shed last weekend, I saw the same length ties in packets of 50 for about the same price (and bought them).

I can't believe the little packets actually get sold, but I suppose they must for them to keep on stocking them.

The cost of the product is trvial, the cost of packaging/transport/handling/admin/etc is the same for the pack of 50 or the pack of 5.

If someone needs 1 or 2, why buy 50 and have them cluttering up the garage/shed?

 

[Fozz]

you can never have too many cable ties or too much duct tape....

 

[accountantpete]

The production cost of a pair of Shimano spd-sl cleats is 50p tops.

£13+ in the shops.

 

[MacB]

The production cost of a pair of Shimano spd-sl cleats is 50p tops.

£13+ in the shops.

yeah it's hard to see the justification for the price of replacement cleats other than having you over a barrel once you've bought into a pedal system. As so many are produced you'd actually think the price would be lower.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

The production cost of a pair of Shimano spd-sl cleats is 50p tops.

It's the metal Cleatium, it's only found in a secret underground cave near Swindon and mined by specially trained marmots on the third Tuesday of every month when the water level is low enough. It's fashioned into a metal clip by qualified cleaturgallists who have spent at least 15 years in training. That's why they're so expensive. Maybe.

 

[buddha]

Sturmey Archer Axle Nuts. Part No HMN128.
A 13/32" nut made from a revolutionary steel alloy with the UTS of Camembert - they are designed to fail (strip threads) rather than damage the axle. Although if Sturmey Archer had made the axle with a coarser thread this wouldn't be a problem - but that's another story ...

Anyway, typical price is £2, although I've bought them for as 'low' as 50p and seen for upwards of £4. But at even 50p for a single nut. I recently paid £2 for a pack of 50, M10 nuts.

/whinge over

 

[tyred]

Sturmey Archer Axle Nuts. Part No HMN128.
A 13/32" nut made from a revolutionary steel alloy with the UTS of Camembert - they are designed to fail (strip threads) rather than damage the axle. Although if Sturmey Archer had made the axle with a coarser thread this wouldn't be a problem - but that's another story ...

Anyway, typical price is £2, although I've bought them for as 'low' as 50p and seen for upwards of £4. But at even 50p for a single nut. I recently paid £2 for a pack of 50, M10 nuts.

/whinge over

I have to agree. And the anti-rotation washers which usually seem to be missing when I get a "new" bike are a ridiculous price as well.

 

[asterix]

A bike I bought 2 years ago is now being sold at 50 (fifty!) % more with the same spec.

I'm sure I bought some Shame-on-you SPD pedals at only a few quid more than the replacement cleats. They came with cleats.