The price of stuff.

[Zippy]

There's a lot to this discussion - lots and lots as people add.

I have many thoughts, I buy lots of components for both cars and bikes. The price of stuff for bother surprises me, both for being waay more expensive than I expect, or way less. Sometimes there's labels and profit being the reason, other times it really is down to something as simple as economies of scale. Mass producing stuff has a lot to answer for, and has made some stuff waaay cheaper than you'd expect. As does supply and demand.

If we take for example, and SKF bearing. Some of them on my bike are dirt cheap, others are 10 times the price - and they're very similar products, in materials, size, manufacturing process etc. I can only assume that economies of scale come into play their.

On the whole, having soo much stuff (we as a planet), makes stuff cheaper for us. Can you imagine trying to manufacture from raw materials, design, process, machine, develop and build any of the cars and bikes we own for what they cost us - then look at how long/amount of effort it's taken us to earn that. It's incredible really.

That said, sometimes people do take the piss. And how on earth was at one point facebook worth more than Boeing!

Yeah, money and stuff is absurb - there's a lot to this discussion!

[BigdummySteve]

Iv just paid close on 300 for a set of handlebars...wtf they better be worth it!!

£300 What do they do, give you a w@nk?

[Alpinum]

these £5k+ bikes that we are talking about. Those bikes aren't really aimed at hard riding, skilled and dedicated mountain bikers, just like (say) Porsches aren't aimed at dedicated highly skilled drivers who love tearing round race tracks on a weekend.

They are absolutely perfect for hard riding. This years tested BMC Trailfox, Trek Slash, Yeti SB, Niner RIP 9, Bold Linkin Trail LT, all top spec, felt at ease (mostly) with the pace and roughness I put them through. Such bikes actually scream for more and boy the Slash eg is a very demanding bike and made as much for hard riding as a bike can be.

It's not the bike's fault if you bother getting chipped gelcoat and scratches on your 5 grand bike.

[Mariner]

OT I had to get my Sheen Weed Burner out as fed up weeding the garden.
Used my last 4l can of paraffin and set off to buy some more.
About five years ago it was £4 for four litres and is now £7.99.
Most places don't stock it in town - yoof in builders merchant didn't know what it was.
Grumble over as you were.

[psling]

OT I had to get my Sheen Weed Burner out as fed up weeding the garden.
Used my last 4l can of paraffin and set off to buy some more.
About five years ago it was £4 for four litres and is now £7.99.
Most places don't stock it in town - yoof in builders merchant didn't know what it was.
Grumble over as you were.

My first ever job, Saturday job as a lad, was filling cans of paraffin! Got paid a shilling (yes, that's right, I am that old - that's 5p to you youngsters!) for so many (can't remember how many). Cold smelly job. Blue paraffin mind, not pink

Sorry - totally OT

[rando nomad]

I also wonder how much price depends on how many hands have to get a hold of a product? I work in a field that ships all over the world to different distributors and resellers and it is amazing how much a price can go up depending on how far it has to go, how bulky it is to ship and how many hands touch it along the way.

[Trail-rat]

the great thing about 5 grand wonder bikes is they are the latest standards and so become obsolete quickly.

i just picked up a pretty good condition ibis mojo HD 140 for 300 odd quid because its unfashionable as hell - itll still ride good enough for me.

i view it as recycling too so has green credentials

how ever the fact its looking like its going to cost me 200 quid to get a gearbox for the wifes car isnt going down so well - the cars not worth much more than that in value - but its worth more than that to me .... what a pain.

[ddraver]

Ive just got back from working a season in The Alps for a accommodation + guide company which costs a significant chunk of change for a week. It was interesting to see what people bought.

After 5 years in NL I was somewhat behind on MTB trends so the first few weeks, I was flabbergasted by such things as Dropper posts and 1x drivetrains from my Canyon XC race HT. In general I'd say that most of the bikes must have been in the 4-5000GBP range with a few outliers into the ridiculous dream bike (most of which it must be said were the girls) and a few, less well off people on cheaper bikes (these were few and far between). We had a few older babyboomer types with superbikes. As has been mentioned often the cheaper, more sensible bikes were ridden by the best riders - not least I suspect because those guys rode the bike a lot.

Santa Cruz Hightowers (carbon) were common, Yeti's seem particularly popular with the girls (usually doctors or Vets btw) but the clear indicator of the All the gear, no idea guest was the YT Capra.

That said, I was occasionally allowed to use the Hire bikes which were Whytes. Now whytes as you know have gone all in on the #SoEnduro geometry with super long, super slack bikes. No I must say that these bikes - and they were the cheaper end of the spectrum at "only 3000GBP" were simply amazing to ride. Because I spent most of the time totally underbiked I found I simply couldnt think fast enough for them but it almost didnt matter as they would just deal with stuff. It was very like using a huge set of floppy skis, you just sat back and let them roll.

So...whilst I cant' solve the Want vs Need dilemma, I can back up Alpinium's opinion about them being significantly faster and better* to ride than bikes from not too long ago

(*Better may not be the correct work, by better I mean you can handle more difficult trail features, can climb without wanting to die, can be used on a range of trails etc.

tl:dr - expensive new bikes may be more expensive, but they are genuinley more capable than older bikes

[Zippy]

As has been mentioned often the cheaper, more sensible bikes were ridden by the best riders - not least I suspect because those guys rode the bike a lot.

I can see why this happens - I feel I have been at both ends of the equation to some extent.

Back when I was at uni, I had little money, but lots of time to ride. I rode a cheap bike - fairly well and absolutely loved outriding weekend warriers down black runs on their £4k full susser when I was on my £500 basic mountain bike.

As I've joined the world of work etc. time to ride (especially where I have time to build some 'skills') has significantly reduced, but I can afford a bike worth quite a bit more. Thus I have ended up with a flashier bike (sortof), but less skillz.

Such is life.

[johnb]

I don't own a car but I often get nobbers asking why I need 5 bikes and expensive ones at that. My answer is simple "you know so and so with 10 cars? Why have you never asked him that question?" PS I have never bought a new bike in my life.

[johnb]

OT I had to get my Sheen Weed Burner out as fed up weeding the garden.
Used my last 4l can of paraffin and set off to buy some more.
About five years ago it was £4 for four litres and is now £7.99.
Most places don't stock it in town - yoof in builders merchant didn't know what it was.
Grumble over as you were.

Sheen burner works on kerosene, which is of course paraffin by another name. I have found when they call it kerosene it sells for less? Sorry can't remember the price but a localish garage/petrol station was selling it for a tenth of the price of wyevale.