Cycling UK Forum

whoof wrote:Where have you been all your life?

A car for $3 million
https://www.caranddriver.com/bugatti/chiron

A bottle of Whiskey £80k
https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/t ... gIXJvD_BwE

A watch for £72k
https://www.chronext.co.uk/rolex/cosmog ... gL-cvD_BwE

A handbag for £16k
https://www.richdiamonds.com/product/he ... gIVXfD_BwE



Compared to these that bike looks like good value.

there is only one solution "Eat the Rich " anyone that can pay 3 million for a car, or 80k for a bottle of whisky, whilst people starve. That sort of money, is usually made on someone else's misery or by exploiting the poor.
Just remember The aristocracy started with Land grab And murder, not the honest toil of workers, A large percentage of the money made in the industrial revolution in this country was made by employing poor People to work themselves into early graves to support the lifestyle of the Mill and Factory owners.

Dear oh dear. The topic heading is about a £13000 Specialised bike and some contributors have gone off piste. What expensive cars and whisky have to do with this bike is beyond me. A recent question on this forum asked how many bikes people owned and the most common answer was three. So it's OK for that kind of materialism but not £13000 for one bike. So then my question is how much can one spend on a bike without upsetting so many people. Is there a particular amount? And stating that really rich people have usually come by their wealth by enslaving others, on the whole I couldn't disagree, but the British public at large like a bargain and purchase goods made in sweatshops. That's more morally OK because so many people do.
Folks, get over it. If someone has a spare £13000 to spend on a bike I'd like to bet that their not as daft as some would like to think. This envy thing isn't healthy. I'll have no one lecture me about "fair". Council House born and bred, a bricklayer since 1980. The wealthy employ me. Thank heavens. Grow some.

‘Expensive’ is relative, value for money, less so.

What a coincidence! Barclays shares dropped down to £0.90p a few months ago, I bought quite a few and sold them when they reached £1.32p. My profit.......£13,000!!

andrewwillans49 wrote:Dear oh dear. The topic heading is about a £13000 Specialised bike and some contributors have gone off piste. What expensive cars and whisky have to do with this bike is beyond me. A recent question on this forum asked how many bikes people owned and the most common answer was three. So it's OK for that kind of materialism but not £13000 for one bike. So then my question is how much can one spend on a bike without upsetting so many people. Is there a particular amount? And stating that really rich people have usually come by their wealth by enslaving others, on the whole I couldn't disagree, but the British public at large like a bargain and purchase goods made in sweatshops. That's more morally OK because so many people do.
Folks, get over it. If someone has a spare £13000 to spend on a bike I'd like to bet that their not as daft as some would like to think. This envy thing isn't healthy. I'll have no one lecture me about "fair". Council House born and bred, a bricklayer since 1980. The wealthy employ me. Thank heavens. Grow some.

This item has very little to do with a bike as your post illustrates.
It comes by probably every month. Fools and the money, why oh why oh why ......
My point was almost every item has products over a range of prices from Poundshop stuff to things that large parts of the population would struggle to afford, if bikes were any different it would be very strange. Equally almost everyone spends money on somethings that someone else would find unnecessarily pricey.

whoof wrote:Where have you been all your life?

A car for $3 million
https://www.caranddriver.com/bugatti/chiron

A bottle of Whiskey £80k
https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/t ... gIXJvD_BwE

A watch for £72k
https://www.chronext.co.uk/rolex/cosmog ... gL-cvD_BwE

A handbag for £16k
https://www.richdiamonds.com/product/he ... gIVXfD_BwE


Compared to these that bike looks like good value.

Nothing unusual about £10k bikes, but they tend to claim to be 'most aero' or 'fastest in a race', this one claims to be

"What if we used every ounce of experience we’ve gained serving riders over the past 46 years and built a bike made simply for the love of riding"

which is a slightly meaningless claim, but I thought the move towards marketing something as 'riding pleasure', rather than 'it's the fastest bike in the TdF' was an interesting move.

Still, with a 52/36 crankset and a 11-28 cassette, it might leave some of its purchasers having to get off and walk.

andrewwillans49 wrote:This envy thing isn't healthy. I'll have no one lecture me about "fair". Council House born and bred, a bricklayer since 1980. The wealthy employ me. Thank heavens. Grow some.

It's not an envy thing...
Its more of an 'Emperors new clothes' thing..
...you can build a bicycle which does so much more for so much less (money) and most of here on this forum have...

..on the other side, purchasing this bike does make the rich a bit less rich

philvantwo wrote:What a coincidence! Barclays shares dropped down to £0.90p a few months ago, I bought quite a few and sold them when they reached £1.32p. My profit.......£13,000!!

Now you've got enough cash to buy yourself a proper Moulton Phil!

The blurb on their website says this:

A featherweight frame is useless without confidence-inspiring ride characteristics, which is why we’ve developed the Aethos to have the perfect balance of front and rear stiffness combined with exceptional ride quality. By studying the flexing and breathing of carbon fiber, we were able to discover groundbreaking findings about how forces flow through frames. Just a few pedal strokes and you’ll realize this sublime ride sets a new standard.

Have they discovered planing?

carbon fibre 'breathes' then.....

do these frames get Covid too....?

philvantwo wrote:What a coincidence! Barclays shares dropped down to £0.90p a few months ago, I bought quite a few and sold them when they reached £1.32p. My profit.......£13,000!!

Not all of us have £28k to invest in single company shares, talk about being a braggart!

The gains on expensive bikes are so ridiculously marginal and the risk of theft is super high and the cost of maintaining them is super high. Ultimately a slightly fitter rider on a low end Claris road bike will beat a less fit rider on a top end £13k bike. You buy a Ferrari car you get a Ferrari engine you don't fit it with a 50cc moped engine in it which can be the case when a rich less fit middle age man splashes out on a high end bike.

It's all marketing nonsense anyway, Specialized import such bikes from the far east to promote their engineering status plus they sponsor events so that the Specialized brand is desired. I don't think Specialized has really made anything themselves, I'm pretty sure even their early bikes were imported from Japan. You can see Specialized mountain bikes being made in a recent fuji-ta video. The same factory is used for many low end brands. I've got a cheap Muddyfox sports direct road bike that came from the same factory, no doubt it hasn't got the butted tubes of the Specialized entry level road bikes that are made there but they will be manufactured by the same people to the same overall quality, only the components will vary and my cheap Muddyfox bikes sports a decent freehub/Claris drivetrain with brifters and dual pivot brakes, it's probably just a kg heavier than the entry level Specialized road bike because of a lack of frame tube butting.

You can see the same Muddyfox model of bike as mine up against a high end carbon fibre Boardman bike here. Also the Muddyfox bike only has a 12-25 cassette so bear that in mind when you see the results. I'm sure a 11-32T cassette would have made a significant difference to the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow7MdsS ... artinSmith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWhsXSa ... nufacturer

Ultimately its a silly money purchase in line with a gold plated McClaren. You'd have to be an amazing cyclist for the tiny gains to make sense and such bikes sell in ridiculously low numbers, probably 10,000 entry level Specialized bikes are sold for every one of these.

Funny to see amberwall tyres coming back at the top end. At least with discs they won't go grey and grubby quite as quickly.

The trouble with Audax is, it finds you out. In the car park at the start you can swank around on a super-expensive machine while you check the wheels are in straight and all that, and you can attach yourself to the lead group as they set off. But 150 miles in, if you are not one of the strongest cyclists out there, you will see folk on much less expensive machines passing you. If you are on a bad day you may well have someone pass you on fixed! It is safer to overperform on a humble machine that to underperform on something exotic. It would be a brave person, a fool, or a real athlete who would take that to a long Audax.

Does such a machine have to be specially ensured? What if the dog sits on it?