New Bike Prices

fatandwheezing
fatandwheezing Posts: 169
edited August 2009 in Commuting chat
Had almost decided on getting a Trek District when C2W comes around again in October, but it's just gone up by £150!!!! £750 now. I guess it sold really well to convince them they could get more for it, nothing seems changed from the previous year.

Now think I might have to have a total re-think......

bugger.

Comments

  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    Had almost decided on getting a Trek District when C2W comes around again in October, but it's just gone up by £150!!!! £750 now. I guess it sold really well to convince them they could get more for it, nothing seems changed from the previous year.

    Now think I might have to have a total re-think......

    bugger.

    The relative values fo the Dollar, Euro, Yen and Sterling have changed quite a bit since last year, which will have had a big part to play in the price of new bikes.
  • DonDaddyD
    DonDaddyD Posts: 12,689
    Shouldn't Italian made bikes and parts be relatively cheaper than stuff coming from Asia and America?
    Food Chain number = 4

    A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    not really prices will have to go up again, bikes have been very cheap and we're now used to that... they're going to return to reeasonable prices and we're going to winge...
  • _Brun_
    _Brun_ Posts: 1,740
    I could be mistaken, but aren't most Italian bikes and (probably more so) components manufactured in the Far East anyway?
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    yup, campag is now competative with shimano on price though which is interesting...
  • DonDaddyD
    DonDaddyD Posts: 12,689
    _Brun_ wrote:
    I could be mistaken, but aren't most Italian bikes and (probably more so) components manufactured in the Far East anyway?

    Yeah but some stuff, bikes, still come from Europe Focus, Dolan, Kuota (I hope), Boardman etc and they are still comparatively cheap compared to the larger non-European manufactured stuff like Giant, Specialized, Trek, Cannondale etc.

    To be honest I don't know where Campag is actually made, i was just working on the basis that if the pound/Euro is weak against the Dollar and Yen the surely the pound and Euro can play nice with each other.

    Meh, we'll all be on Ribbles soon, they (as well as Merlin) appear to be able to keep the price down.
    Food Chain number = 4

    A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    DonDaddyD wrote:
    Shouldn't Italian made bikes and parts be relatively cheaper than stuff coming from Asia and America?

    Campag prices are more competative than they were this time last year, but "Italian" bikes are mostly made in Taiwan along with everyone elses bikes, and so just as caught up in the currency situation as everyone else.
    Bike sales were up quite a bit in general last year too, so no doubt some companies are cashing in on that as well, regardless of any relative currency changes.
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    DonDaddyD wrote:
    To be honest I don't know where Campag is actually made, i was just working on the basis that if the pound/Euro is weak against the Dollar and Yen the surely the pound and Euro can play nice with each other.
    .

    The pound is a lot weaker against the Euro than it was 12 months ago, though not as bad as it was at the start of the year when the pound was very weak indeed, and made my ski holiday very expensive.
    (Now THAT is what you call middle-class self-absorbtion :) )
  • The pound has recovered a fair bit against the dollar too, although I noticed petrol has crept up another 2p or so last week.

    I was just really spoilt when I got my Cayo a couple of years ago, full Ultegra for a grand. Just have to face facts that my next one won't match it.
  • il_principe
    il_principe Posts: 9,155
    Don't forget that most Carbon Fibre comes from Japan/Taiwan regardless of where the bike is made. Even Viner who hand build lugged carbon frames, use CF from a Japanese firm - Toray - the same firm that supply CF to Pinarello and some of the bespoke American builders... as well as providing Airbus with CF for the A380...
  • Stone Glider
    Stone Glider Posts: 1,227
    The prices you are paying for the next year have been hammered out at the beginning of this year at the latest. Then the pound was in a poor state all round and you are facing the exchange rate expectations made then.

    If bikes have become pricey spare a thought for wine drinkers :( I am developing a taste for South African Pinotage! It isn't easy but someone has to do it.
    The older I get the faster I was
  • chuckcork
    chuckcork Posts: 1,471
    Feel sorry for irish cyclists, if I understand correctly the bikes they get are imported via the UK from somewhere else, so they pay the UK price after conversion from whatever currency, and then extra on top when it gets imported with higher VAT and a hefty markup for the middle man.

    Meant that my Dawes Audax bike, RRP £800, was selling in Ireland for a RRP €1500 (at the time I bought it last year). I obviously bought it in the UK and shipped it over, I only know the price as my LBS owner asked me what I paid for it and he looked up the (Irish) catalogue price.

    And entry into the Euro was supposed to help Ireland be competitive, no wonder the Irish economy is steadily imploding.
    'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze....
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    chuckcork wrote:
    And entry into the Euro was supposed to help Ireland be competitive, no wonder the Irish economy is steadily imploding.

    <cod economics>
    To be fair, it did keep Ireland competitive and the Euro would be a long way down any list of what caused the Irish economy to suffer worse than others from the financial mess, if it made the list at all. I dare say not being in the Euro would have hurt the Irish economy an awful lot more over the past 18 months.
    Ireland's biggest problem with the Euro has always been that the UK didn't adopt it too. The UK being the biggest trading partner means means Ireland could never fully exploit the whole single-currency idea as much as other states could.
    <cod economics>
  • Gilbie
    Gilbie Posts: 99
    Had almost decided on getting a Trek District when C2W comes around again in October, but it's just gone up by £150!!!! £750 now. I guess it sold really well to convince them they could get more for it, nothing seems changed from the previous year.

    Now think I might have to have a total re-think......

    bugger.

    £750 is a shocking price for the District seeing as it was first advertised for £399. Managed to get mine for £500 as delivery was nearly 6 months after I ordered. Have a test ride on one, they're great 8)
  • I've still not seen one in the metal, no trek stockists I've been to have had any on display.

    Although......anybody know when the new district line up is out?

    I think for £750, I may as well get something a bit more practical that I'd use more frequently like a tourer kind of thing......