What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

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Mike Sales
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Mike Sales »

Syd wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:
Syd wrote:By the way, did you report the shoddy glasses to Trading Standards? Surely the were either not CE marked or had a fake CE mark. Either must be illegal.

All failures were reported. Some actually held a correct CE mark were reported for poor quality control and compliance to the standard. The remainder, and the companies selling them , were either reported for selling fakes or for selling non-CE marked products.

My line of work is medical equipment hence have access to UV sources and measuring kit. Have reported a number of medical products over the years too to the MHRA.

PS didn’t associate £8 glasses and Vision Express just thought it was a random £8 pair.


Good on yer.
I understand Trading Standards are underfunded. It is a scandal that our testing regimes are rendered ineffective by government neglect.
Did prosecutions result from your reports, do you know?
Do you find Uvex to be a reputable manufacturer? They advertise cheap end sunglasses.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Syd
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Syd »

Mike Sales wrote:
Syd wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:

All failures were reported. Some actually held a correct CE mark were reported for poor quality control and compliance to the standard. The remainder, and the companies selling them , were either reported for selling fakes or for selling non-CE marked products.

My line of work is medical equipment hence have access to UV sources and measuring kit. Have reported a number of medical products over the years too to the MHRA.

PS didn’t associate £8 glasses and Vision Express just thought it was a random £8 pair.


Good on yer.
I understand Trading Standards are underfunded. It is a scandal that our testing regimes are rendered ineffective by government neglect.
Did prosecutions result from your reports, do you know?
Do you find Uvex to be a reputable manufacturer? They advertise cheap end sunglasses.

We make complaints to our local office who then contact the office nearest the retailer’s premises for action. We don’t always hear results but know enforcement action was taken in a number of cases.

I’ve tested my own Uvex glasses (Blaze III) I use when commuting, for my own piece of mind, and they passed. Can’t vouch for others but they all sit around the same price so would expect the same results.
Mike Sales
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Mike Sales »

reohn2 wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:
reohn2 wrote:Think of the good they could've done with it.


One could make that point about any use of money, though it is true that you could do rather more good with £1m than with the price of a pair of Raybans.

I'm not getting into the sunglasses debate.
Actually burning money when there's so much need in the world is crass in the extreme IMO


Any sort of conspicuous consumption could be criticised in the same way, not just sun glasses.
Paying millions for a painting is as obscene as burning paper notes, when there is so much need in the world.
KLF were presumably trying to make some sort of point. Though I am not quite sure what point.
I do have more sympathy with nihilist gestures than with showing off by possessing expensive things.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Mike Sales
Posts: 7883
Joined: 7 Mar 2009, 3:31pm

Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Mike Sales »

Syd wrote:I’ve tested my own Uvex glasses (Blaze III) I use when commuting, for my own piece of mind, and they passed. Can’t vouch for others but they all sit around the same price so would expect the same results.


A quick search found Uvex for as little as £12.

An effective Trading Standards department ought to mean no illegal sunglasses were on sale. I hope they do not require prodding in order to act.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by reohn2 »

Mike Sales wrote:
reohn2 wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:
One could make that point about any use of money, though it is true that you could do rather more good with £1m than with the price of a pair of Raybans.

I'm not getting into the sunglasses debate.
Actually burning money when there's so much need in the world is crass in the extreme IMO


Any sort of conspicuous consumption could be criticised in the same way, not just sun glasses.
Paying millions for a painting is as obscene as burning paper notes, when there is so much need in the world.
KLF were presumably trying to make some sort of point. Though I am not quite sure what point.
I do have more sympathy with nihilist gestures than with showing off by possessing expensive things.

Whilst I agree about the possesion willy wavers,burning cash is a total loss whichever way you look at it.Whereas at least buying something like a painting or even sunglasses keeps that wealth within the world and still buoyant as such it has the potential to be used for good.
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
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Mike Sales
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Mike Sales »

reohn2 wrote:Whilst I agree about the possesion willy wavers,burning cash is a total loss whichever way you look at it.Whereas at least buying something like a painting or even sunglasses keeps that wealth within the world and still buoyant as such it has the potential to be used for good.


Pieces of paper are not wealth. They are just tokens that we have agreed can be exchanged for real things, like food or houses.
Burning the paper does not destroy anything. The food and houses still exist.
That may well be KLF's point. They were given all this confetti for singing and playing instruments for a few minutes.
You cannot eat gold, or paper.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by reohn2 »

Mike Sales wrote:Pieces of paper are not wealth..

That's true,but those paper wealth tokens could've been used for many good things,my hip replacement I believe cost £10,000.
How many hip replacements or cancer treatments or loaves of bread,etc,etc could those tokens buy if they weren't destroyed by idiots?
Ask yourself which is better for whole the bonfire or the goodness?
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Mike Sales
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Mike Sales »

reohn2 wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:Pieces of paper are not wealth..

That's true,but that paper as tokens could've been used for many good things,my hip replacement I believe cost £10,000.how many hip replacements or cancer treatments or loaves of bread could those now lost tokens now burnt by idiots making a reactive point.
Ask yourself which is better the bonfire or the goodness?


I take your point, I am trying to get at their motives.
Those surgeons and operating theatres, bakers and ovens, still exist and can be used. The waiting lists grow because of decisions made in government about allocation of resources and rules made about how we have to shuffle pieces of paper (or digits on computers) in order to use them.
We could decide to use real resources in useful ways without demanding this shuffling.
Money is not real, it is an idea we have constructed for various reasons.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
richardfm
Posts: 969
Joined: 15 Apr 2018, 3:17pm
Location: Cardiff, Wales

Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by richardfm »

Go out and get yourself some cheap sunglasses
https://binged.it/31gaG1w
Richard M
Cardiff
reohn2
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by reohn2 »

Mike Sales wrote:I take your point, I am trying to get at their motives.

Their motives are crass when they burn the possibility those tokens can achieve.

Those surgeons and operating theatres, bakers and ovens, still exist and can be used. The waiting lists grow because of decisions made in government about allocation of resources and rules made about how we have to shuffle pieces of paper (or digits on computers) in order to use them.
We could decide to use real resources in useful ways without demanding this shuffling.
Money is not real, it is an idea we have constructed for various reasons.

Money is a trading token that replaced a bartering structure many years ago,to attempt to put a standard value on whatever is used.
Certain elements of society have fell in love with it as an end in itself.
The idiot pyromaniacs in question kicked back at that,but the mistake their myopic minds made was that their talent in the form of tokens could've been a token of good instead of a token of a disapproval of tokens.
The resultant fire was an outpouring of extravagance and extreme of wealth they didn't care for when they could've shown the extravagance and extreme of the token's good uses,a token gesture of goodness if you will.
I suppose you could say it backfired on them.
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Spinners
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Spinners »

(Spinners tries to move the thread away from sunglasses)

Continental Sonderklasse Tub's at £113 a pop.

At that price I hope they don't go pop.
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reohn2
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by reohn2 »

Shimano road STI are inordinately expensive for what is only a ratchet mechanism
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
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Manc33
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Manc33 »

The £410 pump and the £70 bottle cage were good examples.

I got some fake Oakley's and they are rubbish, in that my head would need to be far bigger to wear them, riding a bike all I was doing was pushing them up my nose the whole time. Maybe the real ones push in at the sides better I dunno. For about the same cost (about £12-£15) I got the RockBros ones and they are miles better.

I can't think of much I have spent a lot on where it was silly, maybe that carbon front derailleur band clamp but that wasn't a silly price (£20) since metal Shimano ones are about £8 anyway. I got that because I was clamping onto a carbon frame and knew it wouldn't be able to crush the tubing. For such a small piece of carbon that's not got any sort of intricate design to it, those are definitely too expensive.

On Weight Weenies I read a few posts where people were talking about titanium disc brake rotors and they were more bothered about if it dissipates heat, than the cost of them. :lol: I would think 7075 aluminium is about the same weight, but whether those would be safe or not is another story. I know from hack-sawing that 7075 stuff it's far harder than 6061 and probably on a par with steel.
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Syd
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by Syd »

reohn2 wrote:Shimano road STI are inordinately expensive for what is only a ratchet mechanism

Its a precise ratchet mechanism though. Its the Di2 versions that seem expensive for whats just a lever and a couple of switches.

A albeit very quick ‘Google’ shows the latest Ultegra shifters at around £100 each in both mechanical and electric versions.
reohn2
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Re: What's the biggest waste of money possible on a bike part?

Post by reohn2 »

Syd wrote:
reohn2 wrote:Shimano road STI are inordinately expensive for what is only a ratchet mechanism

Its a precise ratchet mechanism though. Its the Di2 versions that seem expensive for whats just a lever and a couple of switches.

A albeit very quick ‘Google’ shows the latest Ultegra shifters at around £100 each in both mechanical and electric versions.

I still think they're expensive for what they are.For what offer not so :wink:
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
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