Brian Johnson

> In the great town of Portland, with all it's bike racers,
> enthusiasts, mechanics Bike builders, etc, there has to be someone
> out there who can explain why a high end Downhill Mountain bike
> costs the same as a new 450 EXC, race ready KTM Motocross bike. We
> have been bad mouthing the Auto industry and it's egregious
> business practices for years, In my opinion the bike industry is
> now doing the same
> The price of bikes, bike parts,clothing, accessories, yada, yada,
> yada is rediculous..

It's pretty easy to answer, actually. Well maybe depending on who you
ask. Certainly bike builders and mechanics, racers and enthusiasts
will give you part of the story (or some theories). But the sales
people, marketers, and brand managers will tell you the other part.

Sure-- part of the price is to cover the costs of designing, making,
and selling the bike. But the number on the price tag has very little
to do with the "worth" of the bike.

Let me interject this: You can buy a perfectly serviceable single-
speed Mongoose-branded bicycle from Wal-Mart.com for a paltry $149.
It likely rolls out of the same factory that produces more desirable
blingle-speeds.

Back to price tags-- those really are just little stories about how
much we'd like to have the bike. They tell others how much money we
had to spend on the bike. The price tag (and the headbadge) tells a
story about how dedicated we are to our particular pursuit, be it
cyclocross or touring or downhilling.

How about Surly bikes? No-nonsense, right? Things are so boring
looking they should be cheaper'n dirt, yeah? They SHOULD be cheap.
But if they were, no one would buy them, not even the retro-hipsters
that don't care about Trek or Lance (or at least pretend they don't).

Wait-- did I just propose that a cheap Surly wouldn't sell? Well, at
least not to the people that Surly wants to sell to. Surly wants
folks that want to spend a fair amount of money trying to make people
believe that style and image aren't as important as function. But
they also want people to know that they know you know. About the
whole "I don't care about style and carbon" attitude.

Huffys and their ilk outsell any other kind of bike. But wait-- that
just proves that cheap bikes sell! Yes they do-- to a certain
customer that is after a "disposable" bike. And when that disposable
bike breaks down, the owner is the type of person who would just go
buy another at Wally's instead of exclaiming "Damn-hell-- I just
spent $1800 on that thing?!"

Prices, above a certain point (cost recovery plus a modest profit,
what ever that might be) are just a work of wild-ass fiction.

Back to your comparison between a tony bike and a motorcycle. Think
about it for a few minutes. When someone pays more for a bicycle than
the price of a motorcycle, what story does that tell? I'm not blowing
smoke here-- this is the truth. There IS a story there.

And that is why bicycles cost so much.

Cheers!
Brian J.

* * *
My father asks : "Do you live here or ride bikes?"
http://liveorridebikes.blogspot.com

My life as a Crossniac:
www.crossniacs.com