This article might be a good few years old, but the message is still similar. The quality of the components and bikes we buy now are way better than a few years ago, don’t you think?
I’ve noticed more and more complaints along the lines of “HOW MUCH?” about the price of bike parts,”You could buy a car” etc.
It’s true that especially in the last couple of years there have been price hikes which have been more to do with the power of the pound and dollar, but I think things are still good value – possibly better than they’ve ever been.
I can imagine a lot of you are already think that I’m talking bollocks or that being in the privileged position that we are at STHQ we are too far removed from the day to day to know what’s what price wise. That may be true but we need to wander back in time.
Back in 1996 at the bike shop I worked at, a pair of Rockshox Judy DH’s were around £600.00. For that you got elastomer 80mm of undamped suspension (well damping as we know it ) and we could sell those all day. After, you were sold a pair of White Brothers hard body cartridges and a pair of springs for another £200.00 so they’d go up and down.
..and check out the reviews..
If you adjust for inflation, Rockshox at today’s prices would be £840.00 and the cartridge and springs would be another £280.00!
So looking at the fork market today, A pair of Rockshox Lyrics U-turns are £799.00. For that you get a 170mm fully adjustable fork that has real damping, proper internals and you can adjust them to pedal uphill as well as down.
Propbably something closer to the old Judy would be a SID. How much? £639.00 for 100mm of travel that weighs 3.27 pounds. That’s just one example of one brand of forks.
I remember my first full suspension bike was a GT LTS 2. It was £1799.00 with canti brakes Rockshox Indy forks and a very basic Rockshox coil rear shock – it never got full travel as the nylon bushes were so useless. It didn’t stop and flexed more than a Mastercard. Before a year had gone by I had the bearing kit (which you needed to make the thing work), V brakes and a pair of Bombers, which were astronomical at the time.
That’s £2500.00 now. I’d probably go and buy a Specalized Pitch or equivalent and take the bike on holiday with the change.
So yes things seem to be expensive – but view it in the whole and bikes are still ace value for money ;]
Agreed gary, for most people a £350ish rigid vbraked bike would be better than a heavy hardtail (or god forbid a FS) with duff suspension and cruddy disc brakes.
What goes up,must come down! eventually…
what i miss is the ability to fix/service everything at home.
The old 1999 Z2’s i had could be stripped down and bushings replaced at home for not much money, as could Maverick SC32 forks. Modern equivalent needs sending away for an expensive service.
This is fine initially, but after a few years its not worth getting it done and stuff just get thrown away.
I’d much prefer slightly less performance in favour of ‘maintainability’ but theres no choice!?
what people forget when comparing bikes & parts to cars is that the quality has increased with technology advancements in the former. most if not all the advancements in car technology is how they are put together – as quickly and as cheap as possible. this creates cheaper cars (relative to 10 years ago say) that generally just fall to peices!
You’re quite right. Bikes were really cheap for what you got a coupel of years ago, and they’re still reasonably good value.
And modern suspension technology is very, very good.
But £27 for a pair of grips (and race face ones at that) or £100-plus for a stem?
Some bike parts are clearly subject to a secret stupid-person tax that we haven’t been told about.
Oh, and people in Spain earn less – they need their bikes to be cheaper!
We’re the biggest bike gear whores in Europe, probably (have never been to Germany).
Chapaking – you need to go to Eurobike to see the German bike Whores! There mental!
You arent factoring in the “new tech” price premium…80mm elastomers were pretty bling back then so you cant compare the two…this makes me sound illiterate..I’m not…just have a tiny keyboard and eyestrain!
I hope you get what i mean!
I think its a good attempt to explain things but even just looking at responses here I dont think any amount of number crunching will compensate for the fact people feel they aren’t getting value for money and that perception is very hard to overcome.
oh and I would have lost teeth to get those judys! I think that desire and downright excitement about kit has perhaps dissipated over the years?
damn the lack of edit/my ability to think before typing!
what bikes are cheaper in spain? i lived there and still bought kit from the UK, mate came back to the UK to get his bike too
Wow! Don’t come to France then! Here, in France, it’s cheaper for me to buy online in Germany or the UK, even after shipping. France must be the most expensive place for luxury goods!
Also, not to be too cynical, but this has been written by “Admanmatt” the Advertising Man Matt that is – it may be in his best interest to keep the consumers content with the advertisers price structure of their products….
It wouldn’t be terrible subtle would it?
It wasn’t. The prices they charge can not be justified unless they were hand made.
Thank god for trickle down technology.A good case in point is the latest Deore group.Chainset is now external BB,with long lasting rings,brakes are very good,probably work aswell as SLX or XT though it is a bit heavier.But funcionally its not far off.
Yes prices are higher than 2008,but there`s some very good budget kit around so that you don`t have to compromise on performance.
Though ,Shimano consumables prices are a complete rip off.It`s ridiculous that you can buy a new chainset for less than the price of new rings and bb or that Shinmano pads can be £20-25 a oair when aftermarket ones are £10.
I found the receipt for my first Mount Vision the other day £1490 3rd Jan 1997, it also appears to show a set of XT PD 747 pedals for £99.99 but that can’t be right.
“Back in 1996 at the bike shop I worked at, a pair of Rockshox Judy DH’s were around £600.00”.
Ok so in 1996 Rock Shox’s top of the range DH fork (as used by Nicolas Vouilloz in World Cup races) the Judy DH was £600.
In 2010 Rock Shox’s top of the range DH Fork costs £1299.
Matt – Still think that’s a good example to prove how cheap bike stuff is today?
its when the service on your car cost the same as the service on your bike, that sucks, 2 tires for the car cost as much as 4 bike tires,should be 8 tires, shimano is just stupid money now on wearing parts.
Agreed forks are better value for money but the thing that bugs me is the consumables (wearing parts) are just stupid money now.
The expensive stuff is expensive, the cheap stuff is cheap, buy the cheap stuff if you want to, but don’t expect it to be quite as good as the expensive stuff. Seems simple to me.