Darn .... bikes are expensive

[Smiley]

Well I have the frame and fork on order ( Uniscasi steel w/F3 fork ) , I have just ordered my Ultegra 10 speed grouppo off the web , add to that a seat post I bought from the classifieds , A new Deda 215 bar just like I wanted and now the little stuff starts to add up , Di Vinci cable splitters , Tires , stem , King head set , My new Brooks Swallow , bar tape , cycle computer , bottle cages ,etc. Wow , good thing I'll be using Old wheels and a old frame pump and swapping out my pedals between bikes as all this stuff starts to really add up. Before you know it its over what I thought I could build a bike for. Its no wonder stock LBS frames are soooo attractive . Buyers Blues .... until I see and ride the new bike and then my pains will melt away :)

[SoCalSteve]

They say if you go to the parts department of a car dealership and buy all the parts of a car seperatley, you would spend 35 times what you would, had you bought the same car off the showroom floor.

Sometimes I think about going into a "Supergo" store (now Performance) and buy a complete Ultegra or D/A AL bike, stripping it down and putting the components on a custom frame and throwing away the Al frame. Would probably be cheaper...

Especially since my cheap Shimano contact went away.

Captain, I feel your pain. After the BLE and Kirk Terraplane, I think I'm through for a few years. Four to be exact. Thats when my E-Richie frame/fork will be built. Until then, Im gonna buy more ebay stock and repaint my house.

Enjoy your new bike!

Steve

[loctite]

Not really, it could be worse. Look at golf, sailing, skiing, boating, motorcycles, snowmobiling, auto racing the list goes on, reatively speaking cycling is afordable.

[Smiley]

Loctite , I also have the freaking BOAT too :)

It would not be so bad if we did not have EIGHT bikes in our household :) All in ready to ride condition . Yes we have spare wheels and spare tires and spare parts too . Yes its realitive but bike parts have gotten really expensive and I chose not to get weight weenie parts or my costs would have gone up even further .

[SoCalSteve]

Not really, it could be worse. Look at golf, sailing, skiing, boating, motorcycles, snowmobiling, auto racing the list goes on, reatively speaking cycling is afordable.

Not if you had seen the final bill for my C-50, Ottrott, BLE...and the list goes on and on.

Steve

[loctite]

Dude, Steve, I said RELATIVELY try and tell me a top off the line $12,000 Ottrott is more expensive than a top of the line Harley or boat.

[72gmc]

Given that the boat I lust after is a Hinckley Picnic Boat, I'd say bicycling is relatively affordable.

Smiley, since you're agonizing over incremental costs, can you approximate the premium you paid to make it a travel bike? Couplers, cable splitters... what else I don't know. Just wondering.

[Smiley]

Given that the boat I lust after is a Hinckley Picnic Boat, I'd say bicycling is relatively affordable.

Smiley, since you're agonizing over incremental costs, can you approximate the premium you paid to make it a travel bike? Couplers, cable splitters... what else I don't know. Just wondering.

Hinckley = Rolls Royce , you got really nice dreams :)

OK what do I plan to pay as a premium for a coupler Steel

CDA= $1595
Uniscasi steel = $2495

Da Vinci couplers with 2 spares $ 62
Travel case approx $300 for S&S , I think I'll get the Ritchey soft case for less ( $200)

Make no mistake , this is a better bike for me then a BIKE FRIDAY and one that will be my primary ride for a long time to come . I will enjoy my new rig .

[72gmc]

Interesting numbers, thanks. The bike you've built is a lot like the bike I would build, but I would probably not opt for the Uniscasi version. I don't take many cycling trips, and with kids at 6 and 1 that's not likely to change soon.

[JasonF]

Why must hobbies be so expensive? I'm about to obliterate my slush fund on a new Krieghoff K80 shotgun. It's a two-Ottrotts-for-one Krieghoff proposition and the gunsmith is already trying to upsell me on adjustable stocks, extra barrels, etc...

Maybe I can bring it with me on my rides and shot some squirrels along the way!

[Fixed]

bro airplanes are expensive too, I don't fly one .
bro oh yeah you could take a russian rocket to space too.\
that don't make bikes cheap i.m.h.o. cheers :beer:

[dbrk]

Good thing you're not buying watches...The A. Lange & Sohne Tourbillon Pour Le Meitre you see here will run you a cool $150,000, if you are among the lucky hundred or so who will own one. The DuFour below it, that's a measley 75k or so but you can't even buy one of those, Mr. DuFour is only making 200, they are all spoken for, and the wait if you are last in line is longer (much longer) than a bicycle frame from Chester, CT. Now as much as I love these watches and would love to own one, even if I could afford it, well, I couldn't do it. Paying such a price is beyond my emotional reach, leaving aside the financial. There are places in bicycles nowadays I can't go either for the same reason. But enjoy what you treasure, for life's too short to deprive yourself of your passion when it's within reach.

dbrk

[rePhil]

I guess watches can be like bikes, but no way I need more than a Timex. In fact it has been years since I have even worn a watch.
Going a bit OT but IMO there's not much worse than getting a retirement watch. I think a retirement frame would be more appropriate.

[Sandy]

I taught high school math many moons ago. I spent a large amount of time at the blackboard and thus got my watches full of dust. None seemed to work well (couple of Omegas) except a real cheap Timex. It didn't seem to mind the terrible beating I gave it. It cost more to fix an Omega than to buy a new Timex.

I have no idea what happened to my Omega watches and don't care. I almost never wear a watch. I very infrequently wear the watch that I presently own, which was given to me by my daughter.


Father Time

[dbrk]

Watches, like bicycles, are about passion and enthusiasm and what people prefer and do with their time, money, and interests. Look at what happens when I take Sandy's and PicShooters perfectly thoughtul comments and substitute the word "bicycle" (or the needful). Not many of us here would "agree" with the outcome though there will be plenty who can't feel here about watches the way they do about bikes. (You oughta' see what the watch geeks are like...they make us look timid!) My point has nothing to with watches. It is about passion, money, interest, etc.

[I edited out the "revisions" because, well, I thought they weren't right. But the point is still the same.]

dbrk

[Sandy]

I think that is a great analogy. Thought provoking. If it is relatively inexpensive, works well, and is easy and cheap to maintain, then why get a newer and more expensive one?


Looking for an old-time Time Bicycle,


Sandy

[saab2000]

Bikes 'r expensive? Not if you are a bottomfeeder on eBay like me!!!!! (Vincent Price laugh)

I will have my Serotta Colorado III for less than $2000 with almost full Record. It is coming along just nicely.








beyotch

[93legendti]

Good thing you're not buying watches...dbrk


Or art. In 1990 (if memory serves), my father (z'l) bought an original Joan Mitchell in N.Y. In 1998, 2 years after my father died, my mother received a letter from the dealer, saying he had a buyer for the piece --at over 10 times what my father paid. The painting still hangs in my mother's living room.

[Climb01742]

Watches, like bicycles, are about passion and enthusiasm and what people prefer and do with their time, money, and interests. Look at what happens when I take Sandy's and PicShooters perfectly thoughtul comments and substitute the word "bicycle" (or the needful). Not many of us here would "agree" with the outcome though there will be plenty who can't feel here about watches the way they do about bikes. (You oughta' see what the watch geeks are like...they make us look timid!) My point has nothing to with watches. It is about passion, money, interest, etc.

[I edited out the "revisions" because, well, I thought they weren't right. But the point is still the same.]

dbrk

it is hard for others who don't share the passion to understand what the passion is all about. i think it's like with couples. to outsiders, they may think "what does he/she see in her/him?" all sorts of love are best (only?) understood by the afflicted.

[Kevin]

Bikes, golf, boating, watches, guns, stamps, etc. are not expensive hobbies. In fact, they are downright cheap.

Collecting ex-wives, now that is a very expensive hobby. :D

Kevin

[Climb01742]

Collecting ex-wives, now that is a very expensive hobby. :D

Kevin

is it ok if i stop that collection at one? ouch.

[Smiley]

Listen guys , what is life if you don't work hard and want to play hard . I might have said that my Sports are expensive ( I owned way too many sail boats , beach cats , windsurf boards ) before I got into cycling . Sailing thats expensvive but I still dabble in the game and as far as cycling well trust me its far cheaper then anything else WHEN YOU FIGURE THE EXCERSISE DIVIDEND that comes with this sport. Thats why no matter how much I pay I get something back in imeasurable dollars back. Nothing else does this , except my cat sailing days were pretty exhaustive :)

[zap]

Listen guys , what is life if you don't work hard and want to play hard . I might have said that my Sports are expensive ( I owned way too many sail boats , beach cats , windsurf boards ) before I got into cycling . Sailing thats expensvive but I still dabble in the game and as far as cycling well trust me its far cheaper then anything else WHEN YOU FIGURE THE EXCERSISE DIVIDEND that comes with this sport. Thats why no matter how much I pay I get something back in imeasurable dollars back. Nothing else does this , except my cat sailing days were pretty exhaustive :)

Very well said (written).

[72gmc]

as far as cycling well trust me its far cheaper then anything else WHEN YOU FIGURE THE EXCERSISE DIVIDEND that comes with this sport.

Hmm. Good thinking. Exercise dividend is the payback. This may require a revision of my fantasy where I drop the cash equivalent of 100 Meivicis on a Hinckley powerboat and then stock the galley with Beamish and then just cruise around...

I'm really intrigued by the bike you're putting together, Smiley. I say don't sweat the dollars, you can't take them with you.

[Ti Designs]

Sorry to bring this thread back on topic, but...


As a guy who sells Serotta and other high end frames I've always seen the problem of the huge cost difference between the boxed bikes and the pro builds (frame plus parts kit). I've always justified it by saying that you get to pick exactly what goes on your bike, and we had "kit prices" which were our way of keeping pace with the mail order places. Throw in the cost of building the wheels and the bike and it didn't look so bad. Then Shimano tried to take over the world, they fixed their prices. Not that it's legal, but if we want to be a Shimano dealer next week we dare not go below their set prices - same thing goes for all of the shops.

Customers started to notice things. The close-out Specialized Roubaix pro was the same price as it's Dura-Ace parts group plus Dura-Ace wheels. So you get the frame, handlebars, pedals and saddle for free? Talk about your unlevel playing fields!!!

We now have a number of vendors who offer bike kits. When I sell a Serotta from now on I'll also be ordering a kit from them. In many ways it makes the sale that much harder 'cause I can't break the price down to it's individual parts - and people want to know these things. On the other hand, the kits cost less than adding up all the parts on our old system, and they add in the fork and the pedals! When I look at the Smiley's original post I see little parts from all over the place. I can't help but question if the Serotta kit program wouldn't have yeilded a better final price. Think about it, you're getting this part form this mail order house, that part from another. Each place needs to make a profit on that part, and there's shipping. With a Serotta kit they make the profit on the group ('cause they can't sell below set levels), the rest of the parts are discounted to compete with the boxed bikes, and they're shipping a bix box-o-parts to the bike shop so there's no additional shipping charge.

As we are just starting this now, I would love to get some feedback on the program from forum members who are putting together their next bike. I think the bike shop's job is to make the purchase of the bike almost as good an experiance as riding it...

[Smiley]

Ti Man , Since I wanted my bike built to my exacting standards , Yes I chose a Deda 215 shallow anatomic bar , Then there's the Brooks Swallow and ofcourse the Ritchey WCS seat post and lets not forget the hard to find ( in a kit ) a Salsa Scandium 90 degree stem , as you can see I was picky about what stuff I know will work with my fit and tastes . So yeah I can't just source a KIT , I can justify what I am doing since I don't trade bikes at all. This ones a keeper no matter how much it costs :)

[Ti Designs]

Ti Man , Since I wanted my bike built to my exacting standards , Yes I chose a Deda 215 shallow anatomic bar , Then there's the Brooks Swallow and ofcourse the Ritchey WCS seat post and lets not forget the hard to find ( in a kit ) a Salsa Scandium 90 degree stem

I don't have the kit spreadsheet on this computer, but I know the seat post is in their offerings and if I'm not mistaken so is the Deda bar. You probably have me on the saddle and the Salsa stem is special order. I keep track of mail order prices, I know you paid more for the seatpost (I ordered one with te kit for the last Fierte IT I sold). That customer also wanted wheels and a saddle that weren't on the list, but those prices aren't controlled by Shimano, so we did kit prices on those parts. It still came out less expensive than sourcing the parts form a dozen mail order places.

Sorry if I seem to be selling the idea too hard. I'm just so excited about being able to compete with mail order on prices and still offer the addvantages of a full service bike shop.

[SPOKE]

my Ottrott ST a couple years ago i purchased an "off the rack" Raleigh Team on close out. the parts kit alone would have cost as much as the whole bike if i had just done the kit thing. i unloaded the items that didn't work for me and purchased the items that did work. it was the cheapest way to do the build.

[IXXI]

is it ok if i stop that collection at one? ouch.

a-effing-men to that.

this crazy little hobby/infatuation/addiction of ours called bikes is the only outside of my kids that has actually paid me back something more valuable than money.

[The Spider]

and when your flying down some rollercoaster-like dipper and hit some insane speed or you launch an attack on a inclined left corner....you just have to smile and say the bicycle is priceless!

look at the friends it brings you to...