How Much Would You Spend?

daniel_b

meanredspider wrote:

bernithebiker wrote:

You can buy an excellent frame for £2000, excellent wheels for £2000, and full Di2 for £2000, giving you a bike that is already better than most of the 10 grand one's out there.

When you look at their huge price tags, it makes no sense, the sum of the parts just doesn't add up to it. They're relying on silly bankers that can't turn a screwdriver, or indeed use a calculator.

And in my first example, if you go nearly new, you cut all the prices in half, so you could build a super bike easily for 3 grand.

I built the Foil exclusively from parts that were discounted by 50% or more (excluding the saddle) and, with the exception of the group being Ultegra Di2 rather than DA Di2 and the wheels being RS80 C50s rather than DA C50s it's pretty much exactly the team-issue spec but cost me south of £3k.

A very valid point - my Scott ended up costing me £2100 pretty much, where as a Dura Ace one off the peg had an RRP of 4.5K IIRC, and would have come with crap finishing kit, in comparison to what I have. (I appreciate Dura Ace is 1K more than Ultegra)
The frame was £480, instead of £2000, I bought the Ultegra 6800 Groupset for £400 (PBK discount deal thing), Mavix R SYS Exalith Wheels were £1200 down to £800, and then I added a Fizik 00 saddle (£140), Ritchey carbon seatpost (£70), stem (£70) and bars (£100) - not weighed it for a while since some amendments were made, saddle for example, but last time I did, it was 7.1kg, so may just slip under 7 now.

I also appreciate the wheels were a bit of an extravagance, but they do weigh not a lot, and they had the yellow\carbon hubs and critically the one yellow spoke per wheel, so I had to

And it's all the better for me personally, as I hand picked each and every part for it, so no making do with stock parts that I might not like, or might not be the right fit for me, 100%, and then having to sell it on, or wait for it to wear out.

Rodrego Hernandez

I'd spend as much as I wanted. I like riding my bike and I ride it a lot so I want to have nice bike to do it on. Good quality frame that will last a good deal of time and ride nicely, top of the range groupset and various wheels / tyres. Don't worry about the cost within reason. I wouldn't buy Lightweight wheels for example, but that is mainly because they aren't that good, value for money is important - as is realising that the most expensive bit of kit isn't always the best.

slowmart

Ok so who remembers this old yellow pages advert from the 80"s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnJk6bkjgko

Cycling then was an aspirational working class past time which was fun, affordable and a tool to get around on.

Going back to the OP's question, whatever I could afford, i rarely drink, don't smoke or do drugs, don't shag around, done the motorbike and fancy car thing so you could reasonably say I'm a boring barstool but I like my bikes and spending 10 hours a week riding around I like them to be a bit special.

shortfall

Ryan_W wrote:

I think as others have said, it's all down to disposable income.

I would never rack up debt for an expensive bike, you're living beyond your means if that's the case. I also think if a fat city cat with zero cycling knowledge wants to go out an buy an S-Works, then let them. All the more fun passing them on your £200 single speed!

As for my personal experience, it started four years ago when I got into road cycling. I bought a £700 Cinelli SS, however, before that, I was into my MTB'ing big time and had a £7,000 Mondraker Foxy RR and a £4,000 Whyte B19C.

Once I realised lycra was for me, I upgraded to a Scott Addict Team which set me back around £6.5k. I wanted it, so I bought it and upgraded a few bits on it. I've always been into cars and tinkering with them, so this bike malarkey was a cheap alternative for me.

Bought a CAAD12 disc for a commuter and upgraded that, and then had a large itch for a Cervelo S5, so got one, and that now owes me north of £10k.

Could the money have been spent elsewhere, yes. Do I regret spending it on bikes, not at all. This is my hobby, it's what I enjoy doing. I've met some great people through it (not you w**kers), and it's a fantastic stress reliever from the daily grind of work.....

Does the Mrs know how much I've spent on my bikes... not a clue! :P

That's some collection! When you switch between bikes is there any correlation between £££££s spent and how good they are?

The Rookie

I build my own bikes, I've not yet had a truly new bike as its always upgrading or a frame swap with lots carried over. Could I spend more, yes, could I afford more, yes, could I justify that to myself (not really).

Ironically when I'm umming and arring over whether to buy something new the wife is usually there saying 'just get it, you know you want it'! I guess she figures a few hundred on a frame/wheelset/groupo is better than a couple of K on a bike!

term1te

Looking at it the other way around, I'm always surprised how little you need to shell out on a half decent bike. Recently I walked through a second hand cycle sale (resisted all temptation) then took the family out for dinner. For the price of four (very nice) Italian meals, I could have bought a very nice Italian bike (90s steel). That said, the value of the bikes in the garage is probably higher than the value of the car sitting in the rain outside of it.

meanredspider

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

bernithebiker wrote:

You can buy an excellent frame for £2000, excellent wheels for £2000, and full Di2 for £2000, giving you a bike that is already better than most of the 10 grand one's out there.

When you look at their huge price tags, it makes no sense, the sum of the parts just doesn't add up to it. They're relying on silly bankers that can't turn a screwdriver, or indeed use a calculator.

And in my first example, if you go nearly new, you cut all the prices in half, so you could build a super bike easily for 3 grand.

I built the Foil exclusively from parts that were discounted by 50% or more (excluding the saddle) and, with the exception of the group being Ultegra Di2 rather than DA Di2 and the wheels being RS80 C50s rather than DA C50s it's pretty much exactly the team-issue spec but cost me south of £3k.

#CSB

#TLDR

Matthewfalle

Daniel B wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

bernithebiker wrote:

You can buy an excellent frame for £2000, excellent wheels for £2000, and full Di2 for £2000, giving you a bike that is already better than most of the 10 grand one's out there.

When you look at their huge price tags, it makes no sense, the sum of the parts just doesn't add up to it. They're relying on silly bankers that can't turn a screwdriver, or indeed use a calculator.

And in my first example, if you go nearly new, you cut all the prices in half, so you could build a super bike easily for 3 grand.

I built the Foil exclusively from parts that were discounted by 50% or more (excluding the saddle) and, with the exception of the group being Ultegra Di2 rather than DA Di2 and the wheels being RS80 C50s rather than DA C50s it's pretty much exactly the team-issue spec but cost me south of £3k.

A very valid point - my Scott ended up costing me £2100 pretty much, where as a Dura Ace one off the peg had an RRP of 4.5K IIRC, and would have come with crap finishing kit, in comparison to what I have. (I appreciate Dura Ace is 1K more than Ultegra)
The frame was £480, instead of £2000, I bought the Ultegra 6800 Groupset for £400 (PBK discount deal thing), Mavix R SYS Exalith Wheels were £1200 down to £800, and then I added a Fizik 00 saddle (£140), Ritchey carbon seatpost (£70), stem (£70) and bars (£100) - not weighed it for a while since some amendments were made, saddle for example, but last time I did, it was 7.1kg, so may just slip under 7 now.

I also appreciate the wheels were a bit of an extravagance, but they do weigh not a lot, and they had the yellow\carbon hubs and critically the one yellow spoke per wheel, so I had to

And it's all the better for me personally, as I hand picked each and every part for it, so no making do with stock parts that I might not like, or might not be the right fit for me, 100%, and then having to sell it on, or wait for it to wear out.

These.

I honestly cannot understand anyone who would pay full RRP or even near full RRP for anything. Its all massively overpriced.

yiannism

After one point you dont buy a tool to use, but status symbol, a fashion item for show off, and its false the idea that the people who buy expensive items are those who has the money. 99% of us will never find the limit of our current bikes, to make us to tell, ''the bike is keep me behind, i need something better'', and the bike is no more than 15% of the performance.

Stil people are not just machines, we have also emotions. This is what make us to buy things that we dont need. This is what makes the industry to go on. I am not like that, the 1st question that i do to my self is ''do i need it?'' the 2nd ''do i afford it?'' but i can understand the people who doesnt see it like me.

Joshgav

Think of the number of hours you have to work to afford that bike. This is a measure that many economists use to look at the changing wage/prices relationship.

Those splurging on high end bike probably work many fewer hours to buy them than someone on a lower income buying a £1k bike.

pblakeney

PS - Buy right, buy once. Cheaper in the long run.
I don't do n+1.

daniel_b

PBlakeney wrote:

PS - Buy right, buy once. Cheaper in the long run.
I don't do n+1.

But, but, but...........

You can't buy one bike to go off road, on road, buzz to the shops, commute, Sunday road ride, winter wet ride, Time Trial, turbo use, child carrying duties should it be required - can you?

Plus the beauty with multiple bikes, if one has an unexpected mechanical, you have a backup you can bring into action if need be.

dinyull

All down to personal circumstance and opinion.

Personally, I'm happy on my £800 Supersix - more bike than I'll ever need, latest 105 works really well and fairly cheap to replace chains/cassettes etc. Having said that, have new Tiagra on the commuter and I'd be more than happy with it on the Cannondale.

Wife's step dad shell's out a (relative) fortune on his bikes. Think he does it because he can....and he likes people to know he can. Every conversation you have with him will eventually get onto his cycling and how much everything cost. But if that makes him happy, fair play - that's what it's all about.

kingstongraham

If you start off looking at £10,000 bikes, when you buy the £3,000 one it probably feels like you are being restrained. It's like looking at watches - you can soon start thinking that £3,000 is pretty cheap there as well.

fenix

Is it though ? What would a 10k watch tell me other than the time ? That's got to be a bigger waste of money than bikes.

kingstongraham

TVs then. Or wine.

fenix

I started off cycling in the days of custom steel being the be all and end all of bikes - so I saved up for my dream bike when I had my first couple of jobs - I was living at home and had cash to spare.

So I bought custom steel and the best groupset that you could buy with wheels to match. Spent months pondering over the paint scheme and ratios etc etc.

When the bike was ready - it was a beautiful bike. Lovely to behold. Custom built for my measurements. Great to ride.

After a few years though - it's just a bike. I bought an off the peg one next - it was just as nice.

So either I don't appreciate the subtle differences in bikes or I just like cycling more than the actual bike itself.

Would I pay 10k for a bike ? Noooooooo. There's plenty of decent bikes out there at a fraction of the cost - ride them blindfold and apart from crashing - you'd not be able to tell.

pblakeney

Daniel B wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

PS - Buy right, buy once. Cheaper in the long run.
I don't do n+1.

But, but, but...........

You can't buy one bike to go off road, on road, buzz to the shops, commute, Sunday road ride, winter wet ride, Time Trial, turbo use, child carrying duties should it be required - can you?

Plus the beauty with multiple bikes, if one has an unexpected mechanical, you have a backup you can bring into action if need be.

One good weather bike, one foul weather bike, one trail bike.
I have no need for any more and the newest is 6 years old. Just me.

dinyull

I always notice the difference between the Supersix and my heavy disc commuter.......for the first 2 mins of a ride and then you forget about it.

daniel_b

PBlakeney wrote:

Daniel B wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

PS - Buy right, buy once. Cheaper in the long run.
I don't do n+1.

But, but, but...........

You can't buy one bike to go off road, on road, buzz to the shops, commute, Sunday road ride, winter wet ride, Time Trial, turbo use, child carrying duties should it be required - can you?

Plus the beauty with multiple bikes, if one has an unexpected mechanical, you have a backup you can bring into action if need be.

One good weather bike, one foul weather bike, one trail bike.
I have no need for any more and the newest is 6 years old. Just me.

Well indeed, I was going to say 3 as a bare minimum, but you have N+2 then!
I thought you were suggesting you only needed one bike for everything

For the likes of us who have varying disciplines we HAVE to commit to though, just those bikes will not suffice.
When I say HAVE to - I don't mean Time trials, or going to town, I mean ferrying children about - that will now account for 2 of the bikes in our household, as one will be doing drop off, and one collection.

bendertherobot

Have to say I subscribe to N+1 but, generally, for me N=3.

And of those they just do different jobs. The fast one, the fast one with discs, the dirty one.

The fast one is a superbike I guess, a Supersix with ok wheels. And it's all the fast bike I need now.

pblakeney

Daniel B wrote:

Well indeed, I was going to say 3 as a bare minimum, but you have N+2 then!
I thought you were suggesting you only needed one bike for everything

As I don't race then it is n=3. n+1 does not apply.
My foul weather and trail bikes take panniers etc so no need for +1.

pblakeney

Anyway, for the purposes of this discussion I would have thought we were talking about best bike, so buy right, buy once. I could buy a "better" one but don't see the point as mine is as nice as nice can be.

ryan_w-2

Shortfall wrote:

Ryan_W wrote:

I think as others have said, it's all down to disposable income.

I would never rack up debt for an expensive bike, you're living beyond your means if that's the case. I also think if a fat city cat with zero cycling knowledge wants to go out an buy an S-Works, then let them. All the more fun passing them on your £200 single speed!

As for my personal experience, it started four years ago when I got into road cycling. I bought a £700 Cinelli SS, however, before that, I was into my MTB'ing big time and had a £7,000 Mondraker Foxy RR and a £4,000 Whyte B19C.

Once I realised lycra was for me, I upgraded to a Scott Addict Team which set me back around £6.5k. I wanted it, so I bought it and upgraded a few bits on it. I've always been into cars and tinkering with them, so this bike malarkey was a cheap alternative for me.

Bought a CAAD12 disc for a commuter and upgraded that, and then had a large itch for a Cervelo S5, so got one, and that now owes me north of £10k.

Could the money have been spent elsewhere, yes. Do I regret spending it on bikes, not at all. This is my hobby, it's what I enjoy doing. I've met some great people through it (not you w**kers), and it's a fantastic stress reliever from the daily grind of work.....

Does the Mrs know how much I've spent on my bikes... not a clue! :P

That's some collection! When you switch between bikes is there any correlation between £££££s spent and how good they are?

There was obviously a big jump up from the Cinelli to the Scott, but I would say that my CAAD12 (upgraded to DA9000 and carbon Mavics) was a better bike that the Scott at around half the price.

My current two steads are the S5 and R3D. The latter is my commuter and a very good all round disc bike, however, I will be changing it out for the new R5 upon its release.

As for the S5 (full Di2 and Enve 4.5s), it's the best and most complete bike I have ever had / been on. Night and day between any other high end bike I've thrown a leg over. I have just done a 1,650km LEJOG trip on it, from buttery smooth roads to canal paths and trails in the Lakes. It was faultless, an absolute pleasure to ride. I will probably stick with this model for quite a few years...

ben@31

he could have spent 1/2 that much and got some coaching and been quicker

All the more fun passing them on your £200 single speed!

Not every cyclist is interested in going everywhere at a max effort sprint. Maybe that fat city cat on an S-Works couldn't care less that you've cycled past him. Some people just like getting out in their bikes and cycle for their own enjoyment.

To be honest most guys I know don't need to pay for coaching, they just need to start eating a healthy diet, quit the beer and cigarettes and get out running / cycling more.

ryan_w-2

ben@31 wrote:

he could have spent 1/2 that much and got some coaching and been quicker

All the more fun passing them on your £200 single speed!

Not every cyclist is interested in going everywhere at a max effort sprint. Maybe that fat city cat on an S-Works couldn't care less that you've cycled past him. Some people just like getting out in their bikes and cycle for their own enjoyment.

To be honest most guys I know don't need to pay for coaching, they just need to start eating a healthy diet and to quit the beer and cigarettes.

Acknowledged, was just stating a fact that many into cycling enjoy the competitiveness spirit of it all... #handbags

daniel_b

PBlakeney wrote:

Anyway, for the purposes of this discussion I would have thought we were talking about best bike, so buy right, buy once. I could buy a "better" one but don't see the point as mine is as nice as nice can be.

Fair enough, and a good point, I think it derailed slightly, or at least diversified into other areas.

In that case then, my best bike is my Scott, and the only reason I have the Di2 Synapse, is a prize win, and a bit of a mess up by Evans.
But for me the Scott is my fast, and not quite so comfortable (For me) all out Strava segment hunting bike, and the Synapse (Good for my dimensions) is my all day comfort bike (With hyd discs) but still nice and fast.
Didn't need two good bikes, but the stars aligned, and I thought why not.

In theory, my Synapse with the wheels I have on it now would this year cost me £4500, so am delighted it did not even cost me half of that, as would never have happened.

As an aside, re the coaching debate, I think most people would see huge gains, if they were so inclined, if they simply paid for Trainerroad for a year.
*Turbo required of course!

fat daddy

ben@31 wrote:

All the more fun passing them on your £200 single speed!

Not every cyclist is interested in going everywhere at a max effort sprint. Maybe that fat city cat on an S-Works couldn't care less that you've cycled past him.

I have an S-Works AND a £200 Single Speed ... over taking people on the single speed is more fun .... but I enjoy riding the S-works more as it has that certain Je ne sais quoi about it

shortfall

fat daddy wrote:

ben@31 wrote:

All the more fun passing them on your £200 single speed!

Not every cyclist is interested in going everywhere at a max effort sprint. Maybe that fat city cat on an S-Works couldn't care less that you've cycled past him.

I have an S-Works AND a £200 Single Speed ... over taking people on the single speed is more fun ....t

For similar reasons it's great fun being on titanium and passing people on an expensive carbon ........ (insert generic big brand of your choice). For some reason best known to themselves there is a certain class of cyclist who look down their nose at anything that weighs more than 7kg and isn't made of carbon fibre and there's lots of fun to be had in whistling past them.

daniel_b

Shortfall wrote:

fat daddy wrote:

ben@31 wrote:

All the more fun passing them on your £200 single speed!

Not every cyclist is interested in going everywhere at a max effort sprint. Maybe that fat city cat on an S-Works couldn't care less that you've cycled past him.

I have an S-Works AND a £200 Single Speed ... over taking people on the single speed is more fun ....t

For similar reasons it's great fun being on titanium and passing people on an expensive carbon ........ (insert generic big brand of your choice). For some reason best known to themselves there is a certain class of cyclist who look down their nose at anything that weighs more than 7kg and isn't made of carbon fibre and there's lots of fun to be had in whistling past them.

You come across those people in all walks of like though eh, something missing in their own existence I guess, to have to attempt to belittle others.

For me, anyone out on a bike, is enjoying themselves, and good for them.

My gf is a frustratingly good climber, and I recall watching her, on our first sportive, overtaking men and women on carbon exotica, whilst astride her £300 tiagra equipped Trek 1000
A proud moment