This is a bloody rant about the price of bikes nowadays :evil:
Im in the market for an Ebike, and the price of the range im looking at is going to be about £4 1/2K.
A full suspension, maybe hybrid- eg Scott axis evo. = £4699
Last night im reading on of the trade tool catalogues from a company called Axminster Tools and machinery, probably familiar to some on here.
So im looking at the things I would always liked to have afforded, but never could, and looking at them is just a pipe dream.
But its the prices for what is trade/industrial machinery, that you would expect to see in a professional joiners or cabinetmakers, and be damned happy to own such capable kit.
Example Axminster AT254ps16 panel saw. WOW thats nice, especially compared to my own Axminster saw which cost £650 complete, the clear difference between hobby and trade. Cost of this panel saw - £2999 and will do anything you throw at it for decades to come. Or a woodworking combination machine, which combines 4 or 5 machines in one for use in a space like a big garage or workshop which is again £3000, and you couple to it a £1200 trade rated dust extractor, and even the last joiners I worked for didnt have anything like that level of extractor. Very nice kit indeed, and also going to give decades of service used daily.
Or anything, biggest bandsaw, saw bench or well pretty much anything they sell, a few industrial items aside.
So Im looking at the Scott Emtb/hybrid.
...and thinking £4 1/2K, you're fking kidding me :?
I cannot compare them against a professional saw or spindle moulder or planer thicknesser weighing 350-400kg cast iron, all the attachments you could get foro it.
Bikes have been around a long time,and for a long time the technology to build them has been in place and developed. This isnt new, or some mysterious art form that a scant few highly trained individuals can perform, this is welding alloy tubes together, or into box form and welding that onto some other tubes.
To build a frame for an Ebike - 100 quid worth of alloy plus labour :? Its not titanium, its not carbon fiber its mostly readily available aluminum and most of the time its a robotic welder jointing it all together, with a skilled welder doing some of the work, and i say skilled, but every welder is a skilled welded, "Skill"
The parts to complete it are for the most part long in use -wheels, brakes, gears and in these categories those components are mass produced, not crafted by an individual artisan.
Today its electric motors, mainly from companies who have been making electric motors also for a long time, and those that dont, Shimano for example arent starting from scratch, the designs are already there, and it takes little to adapt or shape them, but the internals are 90% the same.
I can understand batteries are new, but that new :? I think not, again adapted technology, so why the £500-600 price. It is gold, platinum and diamonds hidden inside that plastic casing :?
I just cant see how they can justify these prices, not at all. ~Not one iota.
