This is true for every domain that has a sizeable number of passionate hobbyists. When you have a big enough group of people that make thing X part of their identity, statistically speaking a few of those people will be rich, and purveyors of thing X will eventually create products that cater that price point.

Basically, if you've got someone who has $100,000 and wants to have the best X, someone will eventually make thing, claim it's the best X, and slap a $100,000 price tag on it. I mean, why wouldn't you do that? A fool and his money are soon parted, and rich fools are the best of all.

Men seem particularly prone to this and you really see the effect in "masculine" pursuits.

See also: Audio hi-fi gear, musical instruments (guitars in particular), watches, photography, cars, liquor (whiskey in particular (Scotch in particular)), cigars, woodworking, etc.

If dudes got into knitting, two weeks later some company named YarnProMax would be selling the neodymium jacketed titanium-core YarnSLAYER6000 needles for $18,000 and there would be dudes who bought them just so they could show them off to other dudes at the BBQ.

It's annoying, but it mostly affects the very high end and there is plenty of good affordable gear a tier down. Even better, a lot of this stuff trickles down into the used market for much better prices, so these people tend to act as a net win for the hobby's ecosystem by infusing it with extra money.

Gucci handbags and Jimmy Choo shoes aren't a thing then?

I'd like you to consider whether your response to my comment is a charitable interpretation of what I wrote, or unnecessarily combative.

I recently bought a BMW GS310 motorbike for 5.5k (new, not used), that is just 500 Euros more than my Mountainbike did cost. Sure, the BW is an entry level model, and the MTB is upper class, but still. Mountainbike prices are a rip off, especially if you consider that after 3 years you will have problems getting spare parts for some stuff on the bike.

BMW will make parts for damn near ever. I can still get new parts for my '81 R100RS, which is damn incredible!

> Mountainbike prices are a rip off

You haven't seen road bikes. Look for S-Works.

In our local group rides there is a guy who rides in the fast group on a mountain bike. That is always my reminder that money is best spent on something like trainer road rather than upgrading your components to save grams.

In our local group road ride there is a guy who rides a single speed gravel bike that he assembled himself out of random used parts, and he still beats the rest of us even on hill climbs.

He would still benefit from a road bike. Moving from 30 pounds to 20 pounds is significant without delving into weight weenie territory.

I have to lose at least 30 pounds before my bike's weight is my biggest problem.

Would he care though?

A good 80% of the people I see riding 3k+ road bikes (in an area that likes to bike, there are lots of them) are carrying far more extra pounds on their bodies than they could ever shave off the bike. It's probably safe to say that the vast majority of people riding bikes have far better bang-for-buck performance improvements available to them than a new bike or components, but don't choose them....

If he's riding in a "fast group" then the weight savings will be worthwhile. You can do this with a used 20 year old aluminum frame. It doesn't take elite hardware to benefit from light weight.

If he's keeping up with the fast group already, he may not care (i.e. it's not worthwhile, to him)

I'm not saying you have to spend a lot of money. I'm saying people mostly don't do the obvious performance changes anyway, and for most riders it doesn't really matter (as they aren't doing anything competitive enough to need it).

The weight has to be way less important than the tires. Mountain Bike tires have more ground contact area and have very aggressive tread compared to a road bike tire, which is going to have a huge effect on efficiency. You can hear the difference if you ride each style of bike over the same piece of pavement.

I stuck some smooth tires on the 30 year old mountain bike I was riding around town. It's amazing what a difference it was. It wasn't that expensive or hard to do either.

Of course it made me run headlong into the fact that the bike was geared to go up hills and I was hitting the top gear of it even on relatively easy rides.

Maybe he likes the exercise...

Could be low market volume, or drive for low weight. I share your observation, but last I knew, many things on bikes are made by hand. Carbon fiber frames are laid by hand, nice wheels are built by hand, bicycles are assembled & adjusted by hand... and a nice bike might weight 20lbs while a nice moto might weight 400lbs.

If there was anything on a bike that seems strangely expensive, my mind goes to shocks. Fox sells a small number of models across the entire mountain bike industry, and participates in multiple other large industries as well, so you'd think they would have plenty of volume for economies of scale & amortization of R&D.

The bicycle building business is more of light manufacturing and motorcycle building business is more heavy manufacturing. The difference is at the component level economics. Bicycle manufacturers buy the same Shimano groupsets as the local bike shop. Motorcycle components are mostly bespoke and manufactured to a specific motorcycle manufacturer's specific specification.

So motorcycle components don't have all the overhead costs of bicycle components. There's a lot of marketing costs in the price of a Shimano groupset whether it arrives at Trek's loading dock or via Fedex at a neighborhood bike shop. The chain and gears on a Honda CB650 didn't have a marketing budget to build brand awareness.

it's because cycling enthusiasts are generally wealthy. The high-end bike industry is a scam, standards change all the time for dubious reasons. Soon it'll be impossible to find a new 26" tire.

$50 for a bicycle tire!? Try $100! Maxxis and Schwalbe have no trouble asking for $90+ RRP on their bike tires.

If you can get hold of them, I had to wait two months for a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Tour tyres.

Right, there has always been something amiss about the LBS sales model. Besides franchise restrictions, nearly every bike I've purchased has needed to be ordered. And its not a week long turnaround, i've had to wait months for them.

Frequently by midyear, its more like, hey all the bikes of that model are sold out, you have to wait until next year to order whatever they happen to produce.

Its the manufactures which have really turned me off recently. I DO NOT WANT a 27.5" through axle bike for my middle school kid. Yet, outside of maybe a single XXS bike, not a single manufacture makes 26" bikes anymore. So you have the choice, of the sporting goods store bike, or some 27.5" where the geometry is wrong for someone who is 5.5' or so (besides now having to carry a 3rd tire size when we go on family outings, me with my 29" and my other kid with a 26" from a couple years back).

So, having customers walking around with $$$ in their pockets and not having a product to sell is a problem. Particularly, when the answer is "come back in 4 months" so we can check inventory again. In four months, I've probably managed to find another source.

I got a 26" bike for my son a few months ago [1]. It was the last one in the area so I had to pay full retail, which certainly was a disappointment, but it's got a great frame and we can upgrade components as he wears them out

[1] https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/kids-bikes/kids-hyb...

I miss a good bike sale. Since the pandemic and subsequent lockdown none of the LBS' in my area are doing sales. they move as fast as they can get them (except the carbon racers)

Get your kid a BMX or a 26" dirt jumper. No gears = not much to break. Or a 4x 26" bike with gears if you want them. You can also install gears on most DJ frames with an additional mech hanger. Sadly the only options for 26" are dirt jumpers, some 4x bikes, 26" BMX and some specialized 26" tourers. I remember the 80s when every kid in US movies rode a BMX. Fun times. We rode Soviet or domestic 20" foldables in Eastern Europe.

Try finding a ten year old rockhopper comp, those were mostly still 26" with QR and seem like a great budget friendly choice for a middle schooler.

Kids are not a very lucrative market for the manufacturers or for the bike shops. Hardly any parents are willing to shell out four figures for a bike the kid will outgrow in nine months.

Yah, I've been trying, the used bike market seems even crazier at the moment than the retail bike market. I've yet to find anything that is both the right size, and not either a complete POS, or multiple thousands of $.

Try buying a 300-500 kids bike right now I dare you. Everything is sold out. Totally worth it btw with all playgrounds shutdown nothing for the kids to do of all ages 3-16

I needed a pair of Maxxis High Roller and had to call around a lot until I found a shop that had a pair.

As annoying as that was, as a biker I'm really happy that more people people take the pandemic as an opportunity to discover biking.

More substantial construction does not necessarily mean that the component was more expensive to make. Powerful engines make weight reduction far less valuable than on a bike.

Not really, the whole point of "cycling" is conspicuous consumption and virtue signaling. The high price is what shows that you aren't some pleb riding a bicycle shaped object out of necessity. It's also health conscious, so extra status points. So the market charges this much as a differential, in the same way a "bespoke" suit is pricer than something off the rack.

People who want a car-alternative for necessity either buy a wal-mart bike, a cheap electric/gas moped, maybe a motorcycle, or walk.

> People who want a car-alternative for necessity either buy a wal-mart bike, a cheap electric/gas moped, maybe a motorcycle, or walk.

This isn't true across the board. There are absolutely folks who have a $12k INEOS Pinarello because of status, but there is real value in more expensive bikes (more expensive than walmart).

Going from steel to aluminum is a very recognizable weight difference. Your commute just became more manageable.

A 105 groupset is way more reliable (ime) than lower grades. Your gears will shift better, not click, not skip, and not drop your chain during your commute.

A bike shop (which sells more expensive bikes than walmart) is going to fit you properly. You may get lucky with the walmart bike, but a proper fit removes knee pain, lower back pain, shoulder pain and neck pain.

If you are commuting, shopping, using your bike for real world things, the extra money is well worth it.

Note: I'm talking about a $500 -> ~$2k. Not a $5k bike for a commute. By ditching your car, you more than make up for the $1500 difference in insurance payments, car payments, gas payments, it really adds up quick.

> A 105 groupset is way more reliable (ime) than lower grades. Your gears will shift better, not click, not skip, and not drop your chain during your commute.

Really? I feel like my old 8-speed Sora bike needs far fewer derailleur adjustments than my newer 11-speed 105 bike.

I guess this is because the higher-end groupsets are lighter-weight and have more gears (so, a thinner chain and finer mechanical tolerances).

How is it different to people who buy, or custom build, high-end PCs when chasing high FPS? What home user actually needs a 16-core Ryzen CPU?

Nobody can see your 16 core Ryzen

Walmart bikes suck. Mopeds and motorcyles require licenses and insurance. Walking...I'm not sure you're even serious.

Not everything you disagree with is "virtue signalling". As a bike commuter (i.e. ride for transport not pleasure) the difference between a Walmart bike and a $300 Trek is night and day. And between that and a $700 bike is still good, if you can afford it. Quality costs money.

Totally. And people who use cars to travel to work buy the cheapes cars available.

It's insanity... Average sales price for new cars is like $37,000 right now. I'm a huge car nerd, and can't justify spending that kind of money on car. I can get a lot of car for $10k used.