You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
at the higher end of the scale?when you consider the technology of mountain bikes (full suspension/disc brakes e.t.c) why do high end road bikes still cost more (especially tt bikes) relative to high end mountain bikes?
r+d, small volume
R @ D costs plus captive market?
Because they are better, of course.
HTH.
What crikey said.
because road bikes are more advanced at the top end. Yes you have suspension but look at the wheels, very easy to spend £1500 on road wheels and not that hard to get to £2000. Now how many mtb wheel sets are anywhere near that?
As for tech, are mtb frames that refined? yes there is suspension but i get the impression that not a huge amount of work goes into getting frame weights down.
As for tri bikes i suspect a bit of supply and demand, they are very niche things so production runs will be short.
crikey we'll have to agree to disagree 😉
Because they are better, of course.
+1
It's only my opinion, but it's true. 😀
i was looking at this the otherway round..
Salsa Spearfish frame only:
£999
[img] 
[/img]
or
a whole Giant TCR 1
£995
[img] 
[/img]
i know it is not a direct comparison but to me the road bike is clearly the better value... shame the XL TCR is not big enough for me..
[url= http://www.sigmasport.co.uk/Product/19608/c59-italia-frameset.asp?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=pricecomp&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping ]Colnago C59 frameset[/url]
[img] 
[/img]
i don't even want to think how much that bike will cost
[img] 
[/img]
[url= http://www.rutlandcycling.com/32388/Eddy-Merckx-EMX-7-525-Anniversary-Road-Bike-2011---White.html?referrer=froogle1%3futm_source%3dgoogle&utm_medium=froogle&utm_campaign=pid32388 ]Do not click[/url]
If you put blingy carbon wheels on your MTB, you'll find the difference is a lot less than you think.
[url= http://www.primera-sports.com/products/lightweight-785/lightweight-obermayer-wheelset-9427.aspx ]Lightweight Obermayer's[/url]
[img] 
[/img]
a snip at £3599.99
a snip at £3599.99
A bargain compared to Reynolds RZR 46's 🙂
[img] 
[/img]
[url= http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/detail.asp/sku=Reynolds_RZR_46_Road_Wheels_2011 ]reynolds rzr 46[/url]
a steal at £4999.99
Because the Market will bear it.
What Jam bo said.
TT bikes are really quite specialist but do have a lot of cross over with Triathlons. For some reason I've yet to fathom, Tri's can be a complete money pit from race fees to bike pron.
However people seem to want to cough the money up so suppliers are hardly likely to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Not many MTBs are wind tunnel tested, and not many bike manufacturers have wind tunnels on hand...
Roadie mamils have deeper pockets.
cos doddery old codgers have nowt better to spend their pension on...?
Because road bikes are way more advanced than mtbs.
Accept it, they're just better.
Yikes! i've recently bought a 5.5 Madone as my dream bike but the price for that E.Merckx is unbelievable.
crickey agreed. until you go offroad 😉
What Jambo said and that's right because there's more money in high end road competition than in high end MTB competition.
It's the same reAson why an F1 car costs more than rally car.
to a certain extent there's more complete bikes bought at the top end whereas there is more appetite for self building with mountain bikes
market forces decide in the end - yes the wind tunnelling has an effect too
Top end road bikes and components are directly related to performance and competition like in that Tour de France. They tend to be proven and reliable, whereas mountain bikes and their components don't have the same widely public testing.
Fox forks?
Anodising on stanchions?
How f***ing much?
The public were the beta test....
Not many MTBs are wind tunnel tested, and not many bike manufacturers have wind tunnels on hand...
What he said.
Seen how expensive a wind tunnel is, or even just to hire one for a while?
There is no more technology used in road bikes (less in fact, they don't have suspension or discs), but the technology they do use is explored to the ultimate degree for the second or two advantage it may give a rider. It is pushing the boundaries that costs the money. Any £300 MTB has disc brakes and suspension these days, but top shelf sus forks are £1200 and discs £250 an end!
It's the law of diminishing returns being applied to perhaps it's most illustrious best!
Agree with the better 😆 I mean they just are and faster too
It's the mid range that really gets me - I can understand how the top end of road is so high tech, but the mid range?
£600 on a Mountain bike will get you Toras, Hydraulic discs and basic Shimano bits.
£600 on a road bike will get you Carbon forks on a good day, unbranded brakes and basic Shimano bits.
To my mind, the £600 road bike should be coming with a nicer Shimano bits - Tiagra level say, including the brakes. You must have knocked off around £100 worth of bits losing the discs and suspension forks.
Do they? Not quite the same, but my 2010 Tricross Comp for £1250 came with a decent Roval wheelset, 105 gearing, carbon seatpost/seat stays/forks. It was more expensive than the equiv road bike due to having to pay cyclocross niche tax.
Having a quick look, Specialized don't do much for the same price, but there's a Giant XTC 2 for £1295. Recon forks, Deore brakes, Deore hubs on Giant branded rims, SLX gearing.
Curiously I'd always thought the opposite. Maybe at the £500 price range mountain bikes win, due to there being more demand for casual riders. When you're up to £1000 I think road bikes offer much more than mountain bikes though. Never mind full sus, which adds an obscene amount, given it's just £20 of bearings + a £150 shock.
The frames have no pivots, no linkages, no moving parts, no shocks, no suspension forks, old fashioned brakes and use minimal amounts of raw materials. Makes no sense.
But I imagine if you convinced a lot of cash rich, middle aged men that they are paying for lots of R&D though, you might possibly get away with charging whatever you wanted.
to a certain extent there's more complete bikes bought at the top end whereas there is more appetite for self building with mountain bikes
I'd disagree.
The average MAMIL might buy an off the shelf bike, but on a Sunday club run the number of off the shelf bikes is very small.
Basically cos roadies is stupids as crikey et al have confirmed.
Seriously it's only a little about the above - it's down to diminishing returns and the "magic" imbued on a frame but certain brand names like Colnago etc.
And don't forget that you are talking about a price bracket where value for money doesn't really come into it.
To my mind, the £600 road bike should be coming with a nicer Shimano bits - Tiagra level say, including the brakes. You must have knocked off around £100 worth of bits losing the discs and suspension forks
Boardman do a road bike for £650 with a full carbon fork, using your example, how many £650 MTB's come with the SID WC forks with the carbon crown/steerer?
Also.......
Out last night on a group/night ride and out of ~10 MTB'ers 4 were on bikes probably costing ~£4k, the rest were evenly spread between probably £2k and my bodged together hardtail.
Out on a road ride I feel slightly self concious that my bikes got DA stuff on it as most people are probably riding the road bike equivalent of my hardtail!
Just because it exists doesnt mean anyone actualy buys it, just look at Stork MTB's for silly prices!
I had to buy some wheels for my road bike t'other week. I logged onto ribble and the default listing was 'most popular' wheels first. They were £1700.00!!!! I was sure that must be a mistake and they'd listed 'most expensive' first. So I clicked on that, But what that bought up nearly gave me a seizure!!
The only conclusion i can reach is that roadies are the most gullible punters on the planet
It's because most roadies are fat middle-aged biffers who think spending a grand on a set of wheels will make them faster...
Don't aero wheels only really kick in at about 25mph anyway?? The cost on par with the level of performance the difference in a 4k road bike and a £600 is huge. I think MTB's are underspeced for the money really.