The thing I see different with the price of bikes now is the proliferation of extreme high end bikes with $10,000 or more prices.
In the late 90's and early 2000's (yes I'm old) when I was running shops, bikes in those price ranges existed but were pretty rare.
Now every manufacturer has multiple models in that price range. The quantity of bikes in the top tier price bracket is much higher even if the prices aren't that much higher when adjusted for inflation.
It makes sense for manufacturers and even shops to cater to this market, it is more stable than the low and middle end.
I'd chalk that up to sport growth. As well as not sure if we're confusing inflation yet again. Because you'd only need to be at about 5k in the 90s to represent a current 10k+ bike. But even if you are accounting for that, yeah there wasn't going to be as viable an audience to sell these kinda bikes to. As well as likely fairly hard to justify technology wise when things were fairly cookie cutter and the new things that were tried were often... Considered a detriment instead.
Whereas now with such a well-trodden path, it's a bit easier to offer 'tried and true' carbon builds with wireless components. With a special paint job. It's not even about re-inventing the wheel. It's basically like... 'you can ride what the pros ride'. Kinda factory dirt bike esque. Does average joe need it? Almost certainly not. Is it cool to have? I'd assume so.
And being in SoCal the ridiculous thing is I end up seeing who these bikes are for... I kinda see them all the time. Who typically rides them? Middle aged, middle skilled, riders that are typically just enjoying blue flow trails on them. I see a lot of kashima equipped e-bikes. It is what it is. It probably props up the industry a bit lol. Especially now. People who are more recession proof, especially with hobbies...
The thing I see different with the price of bikes now is the proliferation of extreme high end bikes with $10,000 or more prices.
In the late 90's and early 2000's (yes I'm old) when I was running shops, bikes in those price ranges existed but were pretty rare.
Now every manufacturer has multiple models in that price range. The quantity of bikes in the top tier price bracket is much higher even if the prices aren't that much higher when adjusted for inflation.
It makes sense for manufacturers and even shops to cater to this market, it is more stable than the low and middle end.
I'd chalk that up to sport growth. As well as not sure if we're confusing inflation yet again. Because you'd only need to be at about 5k in the 90s to represent a current 10k+ bike. But even if you are accounting for that, yeah there wasn't going to be as viable an audience to sell these kinda bikes to. As well as likely fairly hard to justify technology wise when things were fairly cookie cutter and the new things that were tried were often... Considered a detriment instead.
Whereas now with such a well-trodden path, it's a bit easier to offer 'tried and true' carbon builds with wireless components. With a special paint job. It's not even about re-inventing the wheel. It's basically like... 'you can ride what the pros ride'. Kinda factory dirt bike esque. Does average joe need it? Almost certainly not. Is it cool to have? I'd assume so.
And being in SoCal the ridiculous thing is I end up seeing who these bikes are for... I kinda see them all the time. Who typically rides them? Middle aged, middle skilled, riders that are typically just enjoying blue flow trails on them. I see a lot of kashima equipped e-bikes. It is what it is. It probably props up the industry a bit lol. Especially now. People who are more recession proof, especially with hobbies...
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