Last year I bought a pretty high end Enduro dirtbike, it's street legal too, but it's mainly for offroad. It was a previous year model holdover, that I purchased for almost $2,000 less than my mountain bike cost.
Maintenance is obviously an expense, I need to change the oil in it every 15 hours or so, easily done by myself and it costs about $35 for supplies. Tires are probably the biggest expense, I'm averaging a set of tires about every 40 hours, that's let's say $260, so a once a year expense roughly. A suspension overhaul, done once every couple of seasons, is about $450. Chain and sprockets will be $500, but it'll be a few seasons for me before that needs done.
What's infuriating about this, is the mountain bike remains just as expensive. A suspension overhaul and tune up is currently about $700 in local shops. Parts remain expensive. A bike chain and sprockets are just every bit as expensive. It's a fucking bicycle, the dirtbike has literally hundreds if not thousands of components, whereas the bike has like what, 10 to 15? I mean overtime, the motorbike will obviously cost a bit more, but holy hell why is this even a conversation?
I mean I wonder why bikes are not selling (/s)!? My mountain bike is from 2022, and it's going to be my mountain bike through 2032 at this rate, whereas a decade ago, I was getting a new one every three to four seasons. Cycling industry marketing and greed has always been an issue, but it's out of control again. With tarrifs and current world wide events, this is going to be the death punch for a bunch of them, and it can't happen fast enough.