Low end motorcycles are more expensive than low end bicycles. A low end motorcycle definitely shouldn’t cost more than a high end bicycle. Have you spent time on a low end motorcycle? The fit and finish is miserable compared to even a mid-tier bicycle. A Trek Fuel Ex 8 for example feels much higher quality than a Honda Grom.
I can get a perfectly acceptable brand new bicycle for $1,299.
This bike is good enough to do all group rides, entry level racing, etc.
If I pick on Yamaha (since it’s cheaper than Ducati), the absolute cheapest sport bike is $5,499 and I would argue the R3 needs at least another $1,000 dumped into it to be fun on the track.
Realistically though, the $12,499 R9 is probably equivalent to the $2,499 Emonda ALR 5.
The other thing too, once these hit the used market. The motorcycles always hold their value far better than bicycles. A 10 year old sport bike is probably still selling for more than half of it’s original MSRP even today. My 2014 Street Triple R was roughly 10k when I bought it new, but I still regularly see them listed for sale in the 5-7k range. A road bicycle from 2014 is basically worthless at this point.
I used to do 10+ track days every season, then I got older and realized I was burning $400-500 every single day at the track and thought to myself there’s gotta be a more financially responsible two wheel sport.
Funny thing is, most of the fast guys on the local mtb scene all seem to also have a moto background as well. Although mostly on the dirt side.
What I learned on my dirt bike, and the racing I did on it makes me a far better mtb rider than many (most). Especially trail rider/racers. If you are doing 30 to 40mph on a 2-track you had better be trying to look three turns ahead, or you are going to be lawn art, or a hood ornament. I’ve avoided collisions with cars, trucks, horses, farm animals more than other riders. And I rode my dirt bike in the winter and learned a hell of a lot about riding my dirt bike in sand. And cracked a helmet too
I’d say Dura Ace or Red are high end bikes (Dura Ace and Campagnolo were high end bikes in the past). It’s interesting how ‘high end bike’ has crept down market. I used to consider disc brakes a high end feature but it’s now almost ubiquitous. Di2 was also, but it’s trickling down to lower price points. Sewups, but they are gone from the majority of the market. It’s now more clouded. Wireless shifting is a high end bike feature. Soon that may not matter either.
But a motorcycle is a motorcycle. Aside from some bling (or disc brakes) it’s power and name, right?
It would depend on how much money you have to spend at some point, right? And the brand and their pricing structure. Is a $15,000 bike better than a $3,000 bike? If you have enough money to buy that 15k bike, you could say ‘Yes’. In the end, it’s a bike. It’s probably lighter, but ‘better’?
Yeah, you’re right. It’s hard to remember how it felt in the beginning. I took the Di2 105 group as being a large part in the homoginization of their product line. 105 is what I started out on, and it was generally rock solid. How long until Shimano drops mechanical 105, and will they? Carbon frames are still a midhigh to high end bikes.
For me, electronic shifting is definitely not “a total game change” but it’s nice. My gravel bike and road bike are lauf’s and they don’t even offer mechanical shifting anymore. My old road bike had shimano 105 and that was super smooth and quiet. Electronic shifting is very nice but I was happy with good mechanic group sets.
I’m not saying electronic shifting isn’t a game changer for some people but I feel like people like to think what they own is amazing
Agree, except for TT/Tri bikes. Electronic made those so much better for testing different extensions. I used to go race with a new front end each week optimising.
Although with the complicated internal routing I am moving towards electronic shifting being better. My gravel bike with a lot of internal routing is mechanical and just doesn’t shift like my bikes of old.
I’m just amazed at the gullibility of people. Whilst on a cruise I overheard a couple lamenting the attacks on Harvard but then saying that Harvard ‘stole over 2 billion from the Covid program, so they get what they deserve’. Yikes… They didn’t, and no university ‘deserves’ to be gutted/disected/disassembled because they are doing the same things as other universities.
History flashback: I had a prof at a college I attended, and he liked to ‘poke’ people. To jar their preconceived notions (more than others), to shake their world. Many students hated him, and when I was in his class, he zeroed in on one of my closely held beliefs, and it was disconcerting, but in the end, I realized what he was saying, and why. I realized that I was the fool and needed a bang on the head to knock loose my stubornly clung to illogic. I can see why some really did not like him. He didn’t do it quite nastily, but I think I saw a small smile trying to curl on the corners of his mouth. One student that I witnessed got up and stormed out, never to return. Some students tried to get him fired, but it didn’t work. I thought he was a little brutal at times, but grew to actually like him, and was sad to hear, years later, he left for a posh east coast school. I imagined him having his own Dead Poet’s Society…
China pays the tariff? Nope… WE pay the tariffs! Tariffs have always been a bad idea.
I will say I have my old gravel bike with sram rival 1x mechanical and when I used that as my main bike I’d have to have the shift cable replaced once a year. Obviously not a big deal but I’ve had my current electronic shifting for a few years and havent needed to touch anything.
The reason that bikes are expensive is simply because they can be, or at least, that’s what manufacturers found over the past few COVID years. Realistically, 99% of people buying a $5k and above bike (forget $15k) are buying it because they want to, not because they need to. The people who “need” an S-Works are getting them for free. An S-Works, Colnago, etc, are the biking equivalent of an Hermes bag or Porsche GT car (without as much artificial scarcity).
Post covid, there are significantly fewer people that want to spend $15k on a bike, and those entertainment dollars are going elsewhere.
But it’s literally capitalism. Make a product and find a market for it that helps you make as much profit as you can. Seriously. (Oh, and shower riches on your investors, or yourself. Get a mistress, another ex-wife, a huge yacht, a ‘space flight’ for your pneumatic ex-mistress/fiance. Buy a sports team, a town, a politician, a think tank, a foreign country, an election)
Wow! I was looking at Wired’s “The Best Bike Helmets for Protecting Your Noggin”, and when clicking on their links for vendors of the helmets, so many are way more expensive than in the links on the article. Some up over 50 bucks! Tariffs? I’m thinking yes, or tariff related greed…
The article was written on May 25 which is after tarrifs were announced.
My guess is that internet pricing on things can change dramatically day to day, especially on Amazon. The other day I was looking at a printer on Amazon and it was $259 and then a couple of days later it was $349.
Helmets also cost hardly anything to produce thus the import cost should be very small. Like $25 to manufacture a top tier $300 helmet is a $6 tariff at 25%.
No it’s not. If Specialized makes a helmet in Asia for $25 and imports it themselves, the tariff is on the $25.
If an importer has toasters made in China for $20, the tariffs is on the $20, not the $59.99 retail price.
A tariff is a tax on importation and has nothing to do with retail prices to the consumer other than the importer is going to factor in the tariff when they price their product.
Of course, it’s a bit more complicated with a bicycle where the parts can be made in a number of countries and then assembled in even another country before being shipped to the US. I still think the final value and final country of shipment is what triggers the tariff.
Has anyone ordered from Italy to US lately? I ordered some Fizik shoes from their website and I didn’t realize they ship from Italy (my fault for not checking more closely I guess).
Trying to figure out if I’ll be hit with tariffs or should try to cancel. Would have bought the shoes locally if they were available
