Today's cycling specific rip-off

Please be fair and thoughtful in your opinions. No rants please.
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backnotes
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

Post by backnotes »

To be fair, the extra £31 does get you a handy label on the outside to remind you that the bag is intended for shoes and socks. I am sure there will soon be a lighter and more expensive "pro" version involving some graphene and nanoparticles.....
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Cugel
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

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backnotes wrote:To be fair, the extra £31 does get you a handy label on the outside to remind you that the bag is intended for shoes and socks. I am sure there will soon be a lighter and more expensive "pro" version involving some graphene and nanoparticles.....


The label need only say "Raphoss" or similar - no need for the nano bits or obsphenely costly carbon to hike the price up.

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
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PH
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

Post by PH »

Don't you know cycling is the new golf
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Footjoy-Genuin ... +shoes+bag

But why is it a rip off? Have you been ripped off by it? Does anyone buying it not know their shoes can go in a 5p Aldi bag? To me rip off implies some form of fraud, it's a bag to put shoes in, it doesn't claim to be anything else, it's a lot of money. If you want it, fine, it's your money, just buy it and I hope it make you happy. If you think you need it, then they ought to double the price just for you.
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robgul
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

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PH wrote:Don't you know cycling is the new golf
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Footjoy-Genuin ... +shoes+bag

But why is it a rip off? Have you been ripped off by it? Does anyone buying it not know their shoes can go in a 5p Aldi bag? To me rip off implies some form of fraud, it's a bag to put shoes in, it doesn't claim to be anything else, it's a lot of money. If you want it, fine, it's your money, just buy it and I hope it make you happy. If you think you need it, then they ought to double the price just for you.


Indeed - there is always the "all the gear, no idea" market - it's a bit like "designer wallets" and numerous other stuff.

I don't sell shoes in my shop anymore but I always used to give the customer a carrier bag (and free as we're not in the 5p legal requirement bracket) :)

Rob

PS: I do have to own up to having a Van Nicholas titanium keyring.
E2E http://www.cycle-endtoend.org.uk
HoECC http://www.heartofenglandcyclingclub.org.uk
Cytech accredited mechanic . . . and woodworker
backnotes
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

Post by backnotes »

I was entertained to find this https://velo.renold.com/products/renold ... dition-set when after a new chain for my shopping bike. I decided it wouldn't be fair on all the other shoppers to benefit from this marginal gain, so I went for something described as a "brown chain" for £4.29 that seems to do the job..

The sad thing is you would probably make money if you bought a few £250 limited edition chains and kept them unopened for 10 years. I am sure they are as close as you can get to perfection in engineering terms - it's just the "limited edition" hype that entertains me.
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gaz
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

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PH wrote:Don't you know cycling is the new golf

It certainly was in 2001 when Ultegra offered the opportunity for an indexed swing.
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Cugel
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

Post by Cugel »

PH wrote:Don't you know cycling is the new golf
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Footjoy-Genuin ... +shoes+bag

But why is it a rip off? Have you been ripped off by it? Does anyone buying it not know their shoes can go in a 5p Aldi bag? To me rip off implies some form of fraud, it's a bag to put shoes in, it doesn't claim to be anything else, it's a lot of money. If you want it, fine, it's your money, just buy it and I hope it make you happy. If you think you need it, then they ought to double the price just for you.


"Rip-off" includes the fraud known as "the confidence trick" in which a salesperson convinces you that a worthless thing can confidently be bought for loadsamoney as it is worthy.

Of course, many confidence tricks are, these days, entirely transparent. But, as with The emperor's New Clothes, if enough dupes and dafties agree a worthless thing is worthy, then it is! (To them). Why else would anyone buy 99% of the fashion-driven stuff they do only to sling it in the landfill after a few days or weeks?

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
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Re: Today's cycling specific rip-off

Post by PH »

Cugel wrote:"Rip-off" includes the fraud known as "the confidence trick" in which a salesperson convinces you that a worthless thing can confidently be bought for loadsamoney as it is worthy.
Cugel

Of course, the whole consumerist capitalist world is a confidence trick, if we stop buying it comes to an end. The choice is to try and change it - good luck with that - or play the game. Judging others choices whilst justifying your own is part of it, but it'd be a fool who thinks that makes them any different. The reviewer of the shoe bag is an excellent example, asking why in hell is that bag worth £35 then describing their own £180 kit bag as just an indulgence.
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