How Do You Justify the Cost of Your High-End Bike?
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RC30 - best bike I have ever ridden, and I have ridden lots. Ducati 748r comes close, very close though.Yellow is the new Black.0
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For a mint one with original tool kit, paddock stand and race exhausts they are fetching over £20k now.
A true icon of a sport bike and sounds totally intoxicating.Yellow is the new Black.0 -
PoorInRichfield wrote:Perhaps I should've changed the title of the post from...
...to...How Do You Justify the Cost of Your High-End Bike?How Do Manufacturers Justify the Cost of Their High-End Bikes?
Yep, it would have helped as it's a completely different question
My answer to that would be 'because people will pay it and they are in the business of making as big a profit as possible'. As soon as companies start bringing out cheaper bikes people will query the quality control. You will see posts on here such as 'would you really trust a sub 1kg frame that costs less than £xxx?' There's also a limit on how cheap companies can make a complete bike when there are so few component manufacturers and new component manufacturers never seem to be able to break into the market (SRAM being an exception). People will quote R&D costs but outside of frame materials (and even there a lot of the testing comes from other industries) how much bike development has there been in the last 20 years?
The only fairly legitimate reason I can think of is the amount of units that get sold in comparison to something like a car or motorbike. It would be interested to see the comparison for example of the number of Venge frames manufactured each year in comparison to that Kawasaki bike.0 -
bernithebiker wrote:I still don't think you understand my point,
which is;
How can it be that a complex, high-tech, powerful motorcycle* that has 170kg of 'stuff' in it, is CHEAPER, than a 7kg carbon fibre moulding with some machined alloy bits on it?
*feel free to replace with car, boat, etc.
Bikes costs money to develop.
Stick with the known and existing tooling and the development cost of a new design can be modest. Go all out, try new ideas, buy new tooling for all of that and costs can rocket. Key though in the early days of a design is that it's often not possible to build lots of a new technically advanced product. The end price rockets when the cost of development is high and not many units can be made. That development, day to day andraw material costs along with the number of units that are likely to made need to balance with the end price to the consumer so as not to bankrupt the developer and hopefully turn a profit.
The new ideas trickle down the range over the years as those making that 'new' design are able to figure out how to make the parts more easily, use the existing tooling and/or invest in new tooling to make more with less of an impact from the high initial development cost.
Same principal, a mid-range Kawazaki can sell for £10k and a carbon MV Agusta can cost 10x more at circa £100k. Any radical ideas in that top end MV will be seen in bikes at £10k in a few years if they work
It's not to say marketing, margain and the like don't also have a part to play in many cases
From my point of view as regards the op, if something makes the riding experience more pleasureable and I could afford it I'd buy it. Value for money is a very personal thing0 -
Just jumped to the end of this post so apologise if it has been said before.
The question to me is not how do we justify buying a high end bike but how do bike manafacturers justify selling them at this price.
I remember Malcolm Mclaren (Punk rock ,remeber that ?) holding up a ripped pair of jeans/jumper his company was selling, saying that he knew it was not worth £100 but if soemone is willing to pay it.
Same applies to bikes at the moment.
Second hand is the way to go.
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As someone touched on - manufacturers make their R&D investment in their top-end products. There costs are amortised against a relatively small number of sales - hence the disproportionate price differentials. In a year or two, these technologies trickle down into mid-range models and the costs spread across a far higher volume.
If you want the top-end model, be prepared to pay the premium.
If you wait a year or two, you can have the top-end model specification for a lot less money.
Some manufacturers stick to small-scale production and therefore continue to command a premium - don't expect to find Colnago C59s at a big discount when the C60 gets introduced.Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..0 -
This is why I've always considered myself a "Shimano Ultegra guy". I'd love to ride Dura-Ace, but can justify the price so I always wait until the new features of Dura-Ace trickle-down to the Ultegra group before I consider buying.Monty Dog wrote:As someone touched on - manufacturers make their R&D investment in their top-end products. There costs are amortised against a relatively small number of sales - hence the disproportionate price differentials. In a year or two, these technologies trickle down into mid-range models and the costs spread across a far higher volume.0 -
smidsy wrote:For a mint one with original tool kit, paddock stand and race exhausts they are fetching over £20k now.
A true icon of a sport bike and sounds totally intoxicating.
I had an ordinary vfr750 at the time and the rc30 was the stuff of dreams. And still is.
Sp1 the classic in waiting and still affordable0 -
Let's re-contextualise the original question:
Can you justify buying a big-mac while other people in the world are dying of thirst/starvation/disease?
Answer:
You can't.
The reality:
The universe does not give a monkey's what you do. Morality is an artificial construct.
Why try to alleviate your guilt by justification? We live in a world of exploitation. Go with the flow or start a revolution. Arguing the point, as far as I understand the origin of the term, is known in Germany as "verbal masturbation".
I think I need to go out for a ride.... 0 -
Pompey Monkey wrote:Let's re-contextualise the original question:
Can you justify buying a big-mac while other people in the world are dying of thirst/starvation/disease?
Answer:
You can't.
The reality:
The universe does not give a monkey's what you do. Morality is an artificial construct.
Why try to alleviate your guilt by justification? We live in a world of exploitation. Go with the flow or start a revolution. Arguing the point, as far as I understand the origin of the term, is known in Germany as "verbal masturbation".
I think I need to go out for a ride....
Think that might be my favourite post I've ever read on here0
