Are modern bikes overpriced?

[mallott]

Parts prices is again marketing, I would hardly say top end parts are mass produced, not like the lower end parts in the range, where economy of scale plays a large part. A lot is marketing, and you will always get some people who have more money than sense.

Regards the average wage, of course it includes the top end earners that drag the average up, as well as the bottom end earners that drag the average down, that's why its the average. What other figure would be a better example of average wage than the average of all wages?

Regards forks, if you went and rode a modern cheap fork such as a RS xc28 (£100) and compared that to a quadra 21r (£275 IIRC?) you will find the modern product superior in every respect. So although they may be not great by todays standards they're not that bad.

 

[greenstiles]

I said my piece now.

 

[Inzaman]

Regards the average wage, of course it includes the top end earners that drag the average up, as well as the bottom end earners that drag the average down, that's why its the average. What other figure would be a better example of average wage than the average of all wages?

Regards forks, if you went and rode a modern cheap fork such as a RS xc28 (£100) and compared that to a quadra 21r (£275 IIRC?) you will find the modern product superior in every respect. So although they may be not great by todays standards they're not that bad.

Average wage, maybe the mode as opposed to the mean (i am assuming it is calculated on the mean)?

I agree on the forks, heck Judy's in 1996 were £400 or £500 and the same money today will get you something far superior.

 

[Tazio]

Talking of forks I was a bit surprised to see the weight of a lot of modern forks. I was recently looking for a set and around 2Kg is the norm for mid range short travel forks. People used to complain that Bombers were heavy but I seem to remember them being around 1.7Kg.

 

[Neil]

forget bikes .What about parts :?
Cranks for £600 disc brakes for £500
I mean how the fk are they coming up with these prices :? do they look at the market and think ..Yes we think the market would accept a brake that costs £50 to make bumped up heavily in price.
If something was hand forged,filed,machined then i coul;d accept it but what is effectively mass produced by machine :? total piss take

''The average wage in 1990 was £13760, in 2011 it was £26000. ''.

Love this kind of statistic.totally false because it includes some earnings that are in the £100,000-250,00 bracket.this pushes the average higher.
Vast and i mean VAST amount of people get slightly more than minimum wage.That works out @ about 12000 a year and even tradesmen can only earn maybe £22,000 tops
Personally id put the average UK wage at between 10 and 11 thousand per year :?

Really? Now?

In 1990, my salary was 10k, within about 3 years (at a guess, and sketchy memory) about 20k, in 96, when I left my then public sector job, my wages were around 22-23k (I remember it being around that, because my first private sector job got me 25k in 96).

 

[JamesM]

forget bikes .What about parts :?
Cranks for £600 disc brakes for £500
I mean how the fk are they coming up with these prices :? do they look at the market and think ..Yes we think the market would accept a brake that costs £50 to make bumped up heavily in price.
If something was hand forged,filed,machined then i coul;d accept it but what is effectively mass produced by machine :? total piss take

''The average wage in 1990 was £13760, in 2011 it was £26000. ''.

Love this kind of statistic.totally false because it includes some earnings that are in the £100,000-250,00 bracket.this pushes the average higher.
Vast and i mean VAST amount of people get slightly more than minimum wage.That works out @ about 12000 a year and even tradesmen can only earn maybe £22,000 tops
Personally id put the average UK wage at between 10 and 11 thousand per year :?

A nice Deore HTII crank is less than £60 and would be alot cheaper if as I said before the pound hadn't halved in value against the yen 4 years ago. Bikes and parts didn't get more expensive, we all got poorer!!!

If by tradesmen you mean plummers, electricians etc. all the ones I know earn like 50k or more. My mate is a window cleaner and has a nice big 4 bed fully detached house and a big money DH bike. I'm an engineer and earn alot less than they do!!!