Why are bikes so expensive…

[gentlegreen]

For the past 13 years, I've been using an aluminium-framed Giant MTB that I paid £400 for and I'm pretty sure that allowing for inflation, the equivalent bike would cost less.

The frame is the only original part left.

Over 20-something thousand miles, or various reasons I've got through several pairs of wheels at £200 a time - along with several saddles and the usual multiple chains, cassettes, chainwheels..

I suppose it must cost me £150 a year for what is now very reliable transport - thanks in part to having learned to do regular maintenance myself.

Were I suddenly to become wealthy, I doubt I'd spend any more money - though I'd definitely have a couple of spare bikes of similar quality.

[pete75]

Bikes expensive?
Have you costed a career in golf?

Cycling on roads is free; golf courses cost hundreds of quids a year ................... every single year.

Or following a premiership team - maybe £1500 a year for a season ticket to watch them at home and 70 or 80 quid a ticket for away games along with the cost of travel and subsistence , all year on year. Buy a Spa steel tourer for a 1000 quid and it'll last you many, many years and average less than one away match costs for wearing parts and maintenance materials each year.

[Ayesha]

A 531 race bike for less than £200 in 1985 ???

The man's in cloud cuckoo land.

The frame alone might have been £199.99.

[Ayesha]

As a price comparison, in 1940, the Claude Butler Tour d'Angleterre full 531 race bike was £17.17.00 and a pint of bitter was 8d. 1/535th of the cost.

Today, a decent race bike is about £3000. A pint of bitter in a London pub is £3. 1/1000th of the cost.

So yes. Bikes have increased in price nearly twice as much as a pint of bitter.

[speedsixdave]

If my memory is correct a Raleigh Classic (531, triple, Huret Duopar titanium, Weinmann centrepulls, f&r racks) was about £350 in Samways, Derby, in 1986. The poor man's gas-pipe Weekender, which is what my dad bought, was under £200.

£279 of road bike cash today will get you a Decathlon Triban 300. I've never ridden one but I certainly wouldn't be ashamed to. It's certainly a better (equipped) bike than the gas-pipe Raleigh Equipes and the like we used to ride in the mid 1980s.

[Audax67]

In 1986 I bought a Raleigh with Huret 2x5 speeds, 28mm tyres, drops, suicide levers and a carrie - can't remember the model - for £175. According to measuringworth.com's purchasing power calculator the equivalent in income value these days would be £633. A 3.6-fold increase.

And when I came to France in 1972 a cup of coffee was 70 centimes. Now it's usually around 1,30 €. That's a 12-fold increase.

[Audax67]

As a price comparison, in 1940, the Claude Butler Tour d'Angleterre full 531 race bike was £17.17.00 and a pint of bitter was 8d. 1/535th of the cost.

Today, a decent race bike is about £3000. A pint of bitter in a London pub is £3. 1/1000th of the cost.

So yes. Bikes have increased in price nearly twice as much as a pint of bitter.

That's because since most of the price of the pint is tax the government is keeping the it down to avoid being lynched.

[Vantage]

A 531 race bike for less than £200 in 1985 ???

The man's in cloud cuckoo land.

The frame alone might have been £199.99.

My dad bought a 531 framed RX100 equipped Peugeot race bike in 1986 for iirc £600.
I have to wonder at the profit margins on bikes given that my Vantage had an rrp of £599 when I bought it. It cost me £404.
Surely the bike retailers aren't going to sell these things at a loss? So how much did it cost to actually make my bike I wonder? Not a lot is my guess.
Like everything else in this world now, products are made to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. We're a long way from the idealist world that Star Treks Gene Roddenberry imagined. Selfishness rules in this world.

[mercalia]

pete75 your bike looks like my Dawes 1-Down now I have got it sorted

[Ayesha]

A 531 race bike for less than £200 in 1985 ???

The man's in cloud cuckoo land.

The frame alone might have been £199.99.

My dad bought a 531 framed RX100 equipped Peugeot race bike in 1986 for iirc £600.
I have to wonder at the profit margins on bikes given that my Vantage had an rrp of £599 when I bought it. It cost me £404.
Surely the bike retailers aren't going to sell these things at a loss? So how much did it cost to actually make my bike I wonder? Not a lot is my guess.
Like everything else in this world now, products are made to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. We're a long way from the idealist world that Star Treks Gene Roddenberry imagined. Selfishness rules in this world.

My Peugeot PX10LE 531 in 1975 was £384.99.

When a newspaper reporter makes a blunder as catastrophic as this, are the other claims in the article believable?

[Sooper8]

An article about bikes which also includes some Marxism, always a good start!

If I was going to chip in to this discussion I would say that, it's not so much about what people 'need' to spend but what they 'want' to spend. So, for sure there are 'expensive' bikes ( although that term is relative isn't it?- expensive compared to what or to when?)

I buy second hand and have never paid over £100 for superb bikes that are great value. I have no need for a new/expensive bike.

[Ayesha]

PS.

My Halfords Apollo 5 speed Hi-Ten in 1972 was £29.99.


Maybe this is where he’s getting confused.

Critchlow’s law of bicycle pricing.

“A bicycle rises in price by 15% per annum.”

In 2014, it is now £10,625.

[Ayesha]

If you want to gauge the price of bicycles, take a look back at the price of the Halfords Apollo ‘Fire chief’.
It has been on sale for over twenty years, and hasn’t changed much in that time. It is a 12” wheel S/S for 4 yr old boys as a starter bike.

In 1996, I paid £29.99. It is now £69.99.
That’s 4.8% per annum.

The average rate of inflation over that period is 2.15%. The bike went up over double the rate of inflation, so the claim is true.

[Mick F]

There's more to pricing than just manufacturing costs, wholesale, and retail.

Retail price is set by what the public is prepared to pay.

[Ayesha]

There's more to pricing than just manufacturing costs, wholesale, and retail.

Retail price is set by what the public is prepared to pay.

I agree with that, Mick.

A bloke selling replica world cup shirts in Birmingham’s market had Brazil shirts at £3, but couldn’t get his hands on Germany shirts. They are still at £70 in the high street stores