Mountain Biking

This conversation has been going on for a while, and people have all these cliché justifications for the high price of mountain bikes 'they are lighter', 'the global market for motos has higher economies of scale' etc.

End of the day I think its a "hobby tax" that bike riders have been justifying in terms of "a price the market will bear".

A friend of mine who was working for a bike brand told me (this was a few years ago) that the company paid about $75-200 wholesale cost for a welded alloy frame and they could sell these for $2500.

I mean, that is fine, but now explain why bike companies are slow to return an email, have sloppy customer service, battle customers on warranty's and don't support 3 year old designs and have no spare parts. Like, how are they not providing red carpet service while charging luxury market markups? Infuriating.

Companies are super secretive on warranty and frame failure rates, but I've heard that a lot of modern bikes fail about 10X as much as they used to. They have shaved so many grams the products just don't last.

I also think there is a lot of cultural and technology stagnation going on, new models and new versions never excite me as a rider. I cant figure out why I want a new bike, what's the benefit?