Prices early 90's

[I Love The 90's]

Hi Guys,

Apologies if this have been asked/posted before but just wondering if anyone remembers what sort of prices Marin's, Diamond Back's, Saracen, GT, Specialized started at from 91-93. When i have chats with friends about this i have always labelled anyone who had one (at school) was a rich kid!

Thanks

 

[drcarlos]

Things like a Diamond Back Sorrento which were quite popular around here in the early 90's could be had for around £250-£300, low end Saracens (tufftrax) were similar and things like the Marin Bolinas Ridge or Muirwoods similar. They competed with things like the Raleigh Mirage and Muddyfox Courier Comp. It just depended on what the dealers were carrying. We didn't have a local Specialized or GT dealer so rarely saw them, but things like the Hardrock or Kona Hahanna were similar prices.
I think £250-£300 was most parents psychological price barrier as even the kids with better off parents rarely sported anything better than what I listed above.
The ones with better bikes were generally the ones like me that worked hard to earn the money to buy them (My Holdsworth cost me at least £350 back in 1989 and sported a Tange DB frame and Full Deore Group, where most were stuck on Exage Country or Trail) although we did have one or two notable exceptions.

Carl.

 

[I Love The 90's]

Re:

Thanks for the reply Carl.

I guess i must have been making prices up in my head as i was thinking Marin's were in the £400-600 price bracket!? When i was at school (90-95) the bike sheds were filled with Raleigh's and Ammaco's. One kid had a Diamond Back Axis then he went onto a Marin Muirwoods. You didn't see many kids with those makes.

 

[drcarlos]

They all had lower priced bikes to sell to the masses, it's only the boutique brands like Fat and Klein that didn't have mass market 300LX/Exage Trail level bikes.
A lot will have tried to build a bit of brand loyalty and judging by this site they succeeded as all brands that produced something fairly pedestrian all have loyal followers.
I've never owned and ridden a Marin or Diamondback (Although I bought an Ascent EX as a donor bike once) but they have a good loyal following from people who owned a cooking model but lusted after an Axis or Arrival from Diamondback or Pine Mountain or Team issue from Marin so they did something right.

Carl.

 

[brocklanders023]

Re:

Back in 1990 when my mate and I got our bikes (89 Saracen Tufftrax, 1990 Marin Palisades) they cost £360/70. You could get a cheaper Marin, the Muirwoods (£299).

£299 seemed to be the starting point for 'proper' MTB's in the early/mid 90's with most bigger manufactures starting at this and many lower end brands finishing at that point.

 

[Once A Hero]

Re:

I'm sure there are some magazine scans in here somewhere with ads and prices on for the era.
However from a personal point of view I had the following, with prices as memory serves...:
1990 Muddyfox Adventurer = £282 (Entry level model)
1991 Offroad Proflex 550 = £599 (Entry level model)
1992 Trek 8000 = £800 (Top of aluminium range)
1992 Marin Indian Fire Trail = £850 (Top of aluminium range)
1993 KHS Montana Team = £1250 (Top of the range)

 

[I Love The 90's]

Re:

It's probably the aluminium range I'm thinking of with those prices. A Raleigh Marauder Christmas 1990 was the best i got

 

[drcarlos]

To be fair we never paid retail for anything. The local shop who are still there (and were distributors for quite a few brands) would always have a deal and a Trail/300LX/XCT/3040 level bike would always be less than £300, this in turn forced the others to keep their prices lower as you could just go elsewhere for a better deal.

Carl.

 

[M-Power]

They all had lower priced bikes to sell to the masses, it's only the boutique brands like Fat and Klein that didn't have mass market 300LX/Exage Trail level bikes.
A lot will have tried to build a bit of brand loyalty and judging by this site they succeeded as all brands that produced something fairly pedestrian all have loyal followers.
I've never owned and ridden a Marin or Diamondback (Although I bought an Ascent EX as a donor bike once) but they have a good loyal following from people who owned a cooking model but lusted after an Axis or Arrival from Diamondback or Pine Mountain or Team issue from Marin so they did something right.

Carl.

Good point. Its was pretty rare to sell a bike for £500 + back then. Prolly a ratio of 10:1 with most around £3-350. That being said when i used to meet up for WE ride outs at High Beech Essex 15/16yr old kids would rock up regularly on £3-4k bikes :shock: and they were nice polite kids who got them for doing well at school. Still cant forget that 15yr old turning up on a new Manitou FRS bedecked in 3DV. I had the only FAT around back then and i was happy with it.

 

[drcarlos]

They all had lower priced bikes to sell to the masses, it's only the boutique brands like Fat and Klein that didn't have mass market 300LX/Exage Trail level bikes.
A lot will have tried to build a bit of brand loyalty and judging by this site they succeeded as all brands that produced something fairly pedestrian all have loyal followers.
I've never owned and ridden a Marin or Diamondback (Although I bought an Ascent EX as a donor bike once) but they have a good loyal following from people who owned a cooking model but lusted after an Axis or Arrival from Diamondback or Pine Mountain or Team issue from Marin so they did something right.

Carl.

Good point. Its was pretty rare to sell a bike for £500 + back then. Prolly a ratio of 10:1 with most around £3-350. That being said when i used to meet up for WE ride outs at High Beech Essex 15/16yr old kids would rock up regularly on £3-4k bikes :shock: and they were nice polite kids who got them for doing well at school. Still cant forget that 15yr old turning up on a new Manitou FRS bedecked in 3DV. I had the only FAT around back then and i was happy with it.

I’d left school by 91 so these were a bit after my school years, the best we saw was a mate who had an mbk trakker hitech and the brother of a mate that had a Peugeot Montana.
One of the guys at college was semi pro and did buy himself a Marin team titanium in 1992 though.

Carl