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Yes I know this has been done before, but I've not bought anything Shimano recently, so it's not hit me until today. Need some new cleats, and went into the LBS - they didn't have any, as they rightly reckoned that customers would baulk at the £20 a pair RRP, so were looking to source something better value than elsewhere.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the price increases supposed to be justified on the basis of exchange rates? Yet the Yen only increased in value against the pound by 50% (has now recovered to ~35%), and the dollar by ~35%. Isn't that a rather bigger increase in cost than that, or am I not remembering correctly how much they were before? If so, who's pocketing the difference?
On a side note, they had a pair of Shimano pedals including cleats on sale for £30!
RRP used to be £13 iirc, so increase of just over 50%
I expect someone will be along in a minute to tell us that we've not been paying enough for years and that if prices had kept pace with inflation we'd be paying loads more 🙄
its the same argument as fuel, every time crude prices go down, pump prices go up.
Where does the difference go???
I would love someone from the trade to tell us that shimano spd's are a 'loss leader' and underpricred, and that the cleats are worth what they really charge us. I am sure that is not the case however.
i think cleats have always been one of the most ridicuously priced shimano products, when you consider the cost of the cheapest sets of pedals that come with identical ones -If you bought a headset for £30 and then got charged a tenner for a replacement top cap for it, you would walk straight out of the door and buy someone else's compatible topcap. The gubbins/beariungs etc in a whole set of double sided spd's compared to a pair of cleats seems comparable. Except you have to buy shimano's cleats!
I think they set the price of replacement cleats at just below a price that will make the buyer buy a whole new set of someone else's pedals instead.
It about time superstar started selling theit own versions of shimano and CB cleats.
Buy some new 520spds for about £20, sell your old pedals...?
See you can avoid this problem by having more bikes 😉
Cos then I have a set of spuds for each one, but only a couple pairs of shoes. So I have more cleats than shoes, so spare cleats.
That might have been the worst justification for extra bikes ever....
Except you have to buy shimano's cleats!
Well you don't, which is the decision my LBS has made. The ones I need to replace are Exustar ones, which worked just fine with Shimano pedals - unfortunately can't find a source for them, but have found genuine Shimano at a more reasonable price (probably undercutting shop wholesale) on ebay. Would be interested in any comments on what else is properly compatible though.
See you can avoid this problem by having more bikesCos then I have a set of spuds for each one, but only a couple pairs of shoes. So I have more cleats than shoes, so spare cleats.
Well I used to do that - have however finally worn out my complete collection of cleats, and despite deliberating for a while in the shop, decided I really don't need another set of pedals (and can't be bothered with trying to sell the cleatless pedals on ebay). The problem I think is that the pedals I got for my latest new bike came with 3 bolt fitting cleats which are still pristine in the box waiting for some new road shoes they will fit on.
I've probably got some Shimano cleats knocking about in the shed, if you still need some?
RRP is £17.99 on Shimano MTB cleats now.
It's annoying, but money is made on replaceables - brake pads, tyres, transmission components, grips, tubes for those who use them.
I was shocked to see an XT outer chainring on CRC for £64.99 (with an RRP of £74.99) - that's pretty much twice the price of an equivalent Middleburn Slickshift Hardcoat ring (in fact it's more expensive that a complete set of Middleburns) making Middleburn a budget brand!
I suppose that the business model's the same as for printer cartridges though - where sometimes you can get a new printer with new cartridges for less than the price of the cartridges themselves.
It does make you pretty sick, the new shimano prices! I've had to buy ex-demo XT instead of a new SLX groupset for my new bike build as it's just not affordable any more. Even Deore is ludicrously pricey now.
You could always change your pedal brand? Time cleats are still £13.
I have plenty of cleats due to having 4 mtbs but I lose the bolts occassionally - are these a standard bolt that I could get from a hardware store? I see them on Ebay for £2 for 4 posted which is a lot of cash for bolts but cheap for bike bits!
Surely the price increases should only be on stock purchased by the supplier at the higher price, not stock that was bought at the lower price a few weeks ago.
An example being i buy a two sets of pedals, at 20 pound per set, i sell one at 30 pound , and then buy another at the increased price of 25 pounds, so need to sell at 35 pounds, but i lso put up my original set to 35 pounds , thus ive now made 5 pound extra profit, multiply this by all the old stock the distributor holds and theyre onto a roll.
Its not just Shimano who have put prices up.I was looking at the price of clothing,shoes and helmets the other day and they have all gone up too.Can
st imagine I would ever buy Shimano at rrp from an LBS anymore.
On a positive note I found an XT mech on ebay for £42 today,purchased some XT M760 shifters ,last week for £38 and recently got an XT cassette for £44 via Merlins ebay shop,but the bargains seem to be drying up,and those who bought stcok before the price rise mark up too.
Wiggle and CRC certainly aren
tt have such a monopoly on bike parts I wonder if the price increases would have been kept in better check?
What
tt go down even if the exchange rate improves,unless we all hold off buying new stuff.
Call me cycnical,but I reckon that some of the Shimano price increases,especially on XT and XTR were suggested,by therr marketing people to put them on price parity with SRAM X9 and XO parts.
Ok I wasn't going to answer but...
It's all to do with currency rates as you all know, Madison the Shimano importer were absorbing the increases in costs for 6 months prior to the recent price hikes. As an importer they have to try and work out the average for a currency for a year to set prices, a difficult task I would say. Printing a new price list every month would get expensive!
Anybody that thinks shimano or others are profiteering are just cynical, there's a recession on so the first thing to do would be increase prices? C'mon that's hardly realistic.
[i]Dibbs - Member
I expect someone will be along in a minute to tell us that we've not been paying enough for years and that if prices had kept pace with inflation we'd be paying loads more[/i]
And yes you've never had bike parts as cheap as they have been for the past 5 years.
Profiteering - is that when you run around trying to find money. Or just some company that knows they have a vertual monopoly so can charge whatever they like, whatever happened to suntour (on 2nd thought perhaps not).
Project - I think you're a little naive really. Can the retailer do the opposite of what you say when prices are falling? When prices fall they will struggle to sell stock bought at higher prices at appropriate profit levels as others will be lowering their prices as they start to buy the lower priced items. A retailer should always sell stock at a price that will give them the highest overall profit. Can't price something too highly as others will sell for less or too low as profits will be lower than they could be.