...who buys this stuff?

[freiston]

I received a promotional email from Sigma Sports today for the Silca brand (https://www.sigmasports.com/brand/silca). I can't believe the prices! £115 for a mini pump, £162 for a frame-fit pump, £70 for a bottle cage, £105 for a presta pump chuck and £410 for a track pump (they're offering monthly-payment finance for that one).

I suppose there must be enough people buying them at those prices for retailers to sell them but I'm struggling to fathom why anyone would spend that much money on such items when, in my opinion, really good alternatives can be had for less than half the price. Am I missing something?

[reohn2]

When people are paying five figure sums for bicycles*,is it any wonder accessories cost so much?


*which I've been ridiculed on the forum for calling such extravagance as madness.

[Brucey]

the Silca brand has been sold in recent times and has been relaunched as a boutique brand, complete with vastly increased prices. The kit may be (slightly) better made, but BITD you could buy a silca track pump for the cost of one or two tubs, and these days it is more than that. What has happened is that the cost of everything else (made in china) has (in relative terms) gone down, making anything made in USA/Europe using older manufacturing techniques seem expensive anyway. But that is not a complete explanation in this case.

But who buys this kit? There are folk who buy it to use (for reasons of nostalgia or because they conflate price with quality) and there are folk who buy it as a nice gift for others.

cheers

[landsurfer]

who buys this kit ...

I meet up with them every week at cafes in South Yorks and North Notts .... plastic fantastic bikes .. Rafa socks ... and all the rest of .. friendly, chatty always ask after my bike ..
Jamis steel framed, 9 speed, thing ... "Must be so hard to ride"
I'm tempted to drop in the LEJOG, but i don't ..
They are never in club strip ....
So many of them can't wait to tell me how at 50 they've retired ......
Financial Services , don't you know ....

The Cycling industry could not survive with out them ...

[rotavator]

Who would buy such things? Some possibilities:

Well if you were wealthy but bored and fancied an expensive new "toy" but your bike shed/garage is already overflowing with bling bikes but there was still room for something smaller or your partner has banned the purchase of another bike. Or may be if someone senses the approach of the grim reaper and thinks "Well I might as well blow some of it rather than give it to HMRC or the undeserving, miserable relatives".

[freiston]

who buys this kit ...

I meet up with them every week at cafes in South Yorks and North Notts .... plastic fantastic bikes .. Rafa socks ... and all the rest of .. friendly, chatty always ask after my bike ..
Jamis steel framed, 9 speed, thing ... "Must be so hard to ride"
I'm tempted to drop in the LEJOG, but i don't ..
They are never in club strip ....
So many of them can't wait to tell me how at 50 they've retired ......
Financial Services , don't you know ....

The Cycling industry could not survive with out them ...

I have a Jamis steel 9 speed too - the Aurora touring model with a few modifications but nothing of the Silca brand. I don't think I've met any of cyclists you mention, but I do meet a lot on carbon frames who seem to obsess about weight and Strava. I suppose that for some, when affording the lightest is achieved, then the appetite is satisfied by other factors.

[freiston]

Who would buy such things? Some possibilities:

Well if you were wealthy but bored and fancied an expensive new "toy" but your bike shed/garage is already overflowing with bling bikes but there was still room for something smaller or your partner has banned the purchase of another bike. Or may be if someone senses the approach of the grim reaper and thinks "Well I might as well blow some of it rather than give it to HMRC or the undeserving, miserable relatives".

If I sensed the approach of the grim reaper, I would probably spend about £50 on a track pump and the difference on Lagavulin

[mattsccm]

Might I ask the question about Audis or Iphones? I don't get it either.

[rotavator]

Might I ask the question about Audis or Iphones? I don't get it either.

Some of the things that are going in some peoples' heads:

1. Some people see a strong positive correlation between price and quality, i.e. if an Audi costs twice as much as another, similar sized car it must be twice as good if not more.

2. For some people owning expensive showy goods confers higher status on them, at least in their own minds, i.e. it is about competition for social status. Their friends are more likely to impressed by the purchase of a new Audi or Range Rover than a second hand Vauxhall or Dacia even if the cars all do the same job equally.

3. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, some would say that some Audis and iphones etc are better looking than the competition so it may be worth spending a bit more on them even if they are no better/reliable/multifunctional/faster.

[iandriver]

I wonder if it's reliability is sufficient to justify perhaps a race team or other very heavy usage setup buying something like the pump. Or are they all using compressors?

For the life of me, I can't see why an individual would need it. Low volume, high margin goods have always been there though. The amount you can spend on a watch astonishes me also.

I wonder if you can tow one of these behind a Pinerello Dogma https://www.harveynichols.com/brand/fpm ... /p3452733/

[reohn2]

........I wonder if you can tow one of these behind a Pinerello Dogma https://www.harveynichols.com/brand/fpm ... /p3452733/

That just made me laugh out loud

[Freddie]

The amount you can spend on a watch astonishes me also.

I watched a few celebrity watch collection videos on Youtube. I was staggered not so much by the price, but how ugly so many of the watches were.

The same can often be said of the homes the nouveau riche live in, grey, white and beige sometimes with black kitchens (horror of horrors) with a selection of ugly modern 'art'. The Architectural Digest Youtube channel is like Barratt Homes for multi-millionaires.

Money certainly doesn't buy good taste.

[Lance Dopestrong]

The £70 bottle cage is laughable. No matter how you try and justify it, near identical carbon bottle cages are available for less than 30 snifters.

If people pay those prices and keep them in business, then good luck to them. I'll be buying comparable, if not even superior, products elsewhere for a lot less cash, simply because I'm not wealthy enough to spend 70 quid on something without considering whether good value or not.

Their £40 phone wallet is perhaps not for me, seeing as my phone cost me only £30 in 2012. It's fair to say I'm not their intended demographic for some items

[100%JR]

I don't get why it bothers people so much how others spend their money.I personally wouldn't pay those prices but if someone else wants to then that's their choice.
I have a friend who has 10 bikes.Yes TEN.He only wears Rapha clothing.He rides maybe three or four times a year.It's his money!Despite not having turned a pedal in almost a year he bought a new bike for our trip to Mallorca last May.That bike has been out once since May 2018.He's single so no one is losing out.
RE watches.I like watches.I wanted a Tag Heuer Carrera for my 50th last year but the missus didn't like the idea.I've just bought it myself.It could be considered to be fairly expensive(but in watch terms it isn't really) but IMO it's worth it.I like it and could not care less if anyone else does.I bought it for me.

Let folk buy what they want to buy

[Lance Dopestrong]

Mrs Dopestrong wasn't keen on me buying a Rolex when I retired. Being the considerate husband that I am I took her views on board, and bought an almost identical Tudor Pellagos instead and just mumbled vaguely when asked about the cost