Time to fess up, folks! I see pics and talk of a lot of nice bikes, components and equipment on here. I thought it would be interesting to take a straw poll. If anything it will help me convince my wife that I could be way worse
In the past 3 years how much have you spent on bikes and equipment (such as trainers, wheels, tires, lube, etc…but not counting nutrition, race fees, travel, etc)
After doing the math I was a little higher than I thought. Though if I subtracted out how much I sold in bikes/bike stuff over that time I could drop down two levels
On one hand, it’s kind of good to have someone questioning the need for certain expenses. Personally, if I went to my wife and told her I wanted wheels to save maybe a minute per hour, I’d be told to get lost. I think gear acquisition syndrome is real and sometimes we have to stop getting stuff and just train. On the other hand, I think there are a lot worse vices to spend on, I think equipment that gets lots of use is a worthy investment in our health.
well…
Also the bike prices have the last 12-18 months…
where 2018 you could buy a mid-high end electronic shifting bike for 3-4k now the same bike is no less than 6k. And mechanical are no less than 3k for ultegra.
When i decides to buy a new bike last year I was not expecting the bikes to be so expensive this year…
As far as road bikes go I paid 3000 for my 2016 Emonda SL6 Ultegra mech back in 2016. Granted TREK are a bit higher priced than direct brands, but 3k for the same quality bike now doesn’t seem bad at all
Same bike now is 3800… probably when you bough yours the Di version was 4k…
sl6 is 4800 with rival wireless
SL7 with Di2 5800 and 6300 with eTap…
I actually have no idea, nor am I interested in such a number. I estimated it, and found I was in the middle of the bell curve, phew!
Back in my shop days we had a customer who’s spending was over $50,000, this was about 3, maybe 4 years. We were also not the only shop he did business with. I’m sure in larger markets that number is even small.
It is what it is at the end of the day bikes are in short supply and demand is high, so the consumer obviously isn’t too put off by the price. My buddy recently walked into a TREK store and paid $9,000 for a Madone SLR with Force AXS and didn’t blink an eye, granted he may be doing better financially than some others but when I walked into my local LBS recently it looked like a ghost town too.
$800 jump over 5 years isn’t too terrible especially given the circumstances with global supply chains
When I was in school I knew a number of guys who would take out the maximum student loans and then use some of it on bike stuff. I don’t think they were majoring in accounting.
True… but that jump was probably a 2020 vs 2021 jump…not really gradual…
I think the best example of the trend is canyon… in 2020 you could buy a di canyon tri bike for 4500… now the mechanical is 4300 and the di is 6000!
thats a massive jump… (granted, they still a good value compared to other similar bikes, since they have good wheels and PM).
If I were in school, knowing what i know now, I would do the same…
When I was in school I took two student loans… one for a computer and one for a car…
Granted back in 1996 and 1999 those loans were subsidized I was able to pay very quickly after graduating… but still
Depends how you look at it I suppose. Whether it happened gradually or suddenly, my experience is that since 5 years ago the price went up $800. If they are going to raise prices $800 every 5 years by keeping them steady for 4 and jumping on the 5th then , if they are going to raise prices $800 every year then they will simply price themselves out of business
Also worth noting there was a redesign of the bike to a more aero version from 2020-2021 so there’s definitely some benefit to the cost there
the last 12-18 months…
, if they are going to raise prices $800 every year then they will simply price themselves out of business