Is cycling getting cheaper compare to early 2000?

[zmalwo]

so I started road cycling around 8 years ago and build my first bike 5 years ago, what I noticed is that everything is getting cheaper and cheaper. 5 years ago I bought my first groupset and wheels and built my bike from the scratch. at that time the cheapest Chorus set I found online was $1300, $450 for the Zonda wheels and Di2 components costing a lot more than now. Today I can easily find a 2015 Chorus set for $900 and di2 ultegra set for $1200, and Zonda wheels went from $450 to $350. Even looking back at early 2000 Trek Madone bikes, the most expensive Madone 5.9 was priced at $10000 in 2003. Considering inflation and GDP growth, the top end bike staying in the same price range means those top end bike became alot more affordable. Is it just me getting better at finding cheaper stuff or is the bike industry really becoming more affordable?

[charliedid]

Cycling is free bikes are not. IMO $ 10,000 stock bikes are stupid.

[BdaGhisallo]

It's definitely cheaper than when I got into the sport in the late 1980s. Dollar prices are similar or slightly lower now in many cases but the level of quality and functionality is light years ahead of what was for sale thirty years ago.

We are living in the golden age of bicycles and their related technologies.

[AngryScientist]

yes and no.

i think the value at the mid and lower end has never been better, and you can buy into a very good bike at a lower relative price point then you ever could, and have a better bike overall. consumables like good tires, cassettes and chains also appear to be more affordable than ever.

that said, some of the top end stuff is getting stupid expensive. zipps top end wheels appear to go for over $4k msrp, the new etapz are crazy expensive and so are some top end frames.

so to summarize, i agree that today you can buy into the sport cheaper (relatively) than you ever could before, and simultaneously you can spend much more than ever possible if you wish to.

[El Chaba]

Supply and demand. Participation is the sport has been on the decline for 10 years. This fact combined with the internet to facilitate the connection of buyer with a seller willing to give away product makes it a buyer's market...

[BdaGhisallo]

yes and no.

i think the value at the mid and lower end has never been better, and you can buy into a very good bike at a lower relative price point then you ever could, and have a better bike overall. consumables like good tires, cassettes and chains also appear to be more affordable than ever.

that said, some of the top end stuff is getting stupid expensive. zipps top end wheels appear to go for over $4k msrp, the new etapz are crazy expensive and so are some top end frames.

so to summarize, i agree that today you can buy into the sport cheaper (relatively) than you ever could before, and simultaneously you can spend much more than ever possible if you wish to.

I think you're right on this. The top end prices have blown out a fair bit but the low end stuff is simply fantastic compared to years ago. It's amazing what you can get for a small number of dollars these days.

[saab2000]

The Allez Sprint aluminum road bike from Specialized with 105 has an MSRP is $1800. This is about the same amount that a top of the line road bike with Campagnolo Super Record cost in the early 1980s when I first started to ride and pay attention to this stuff.

Adjusted for inflation, that top of the line Gios Torino or Colnago today would probably be about $6000 and considering how much better the Specialized is in real world usability there's no comparison.

To be fair, $1800 is still a lot of money but this is a bike that honestly isn't all that far away from a $10000 road bike in terms of real world performance it's a no-brainer. Cycling is way, way cheaper today than it's ever been and equipment is way, way better.

[cash05458]

To be sure, cheaper for me than back then as I stopped buying a lot of crap I didn't really need...

[NHAero]

Mountain bikes have gotten more expensive at the high end, due to full suspension, dropper posts, hydro brakes, etc. High end consumables are expensive (the XX1 10-42 cassette street price is close to $300.)

[MattTuck]

The Allez Sprint aluminum road bike from Specialized with 105 has an MSRP is $1800. This is about the same amount that a top of the line road bike with Campagnolo Super Record cost in the early 1980s when I first started to ride and pay attention to this stuff.

Adjusted for inflation, that top of the line Gios Torino or Colnago today would probably be about $6000 and considering how much better the Specialized is in real world usability there's no comparison.

To be fair, $1800 is still a lot of money but this is a bike that honestly isn't all that far away from a $10000 road bike in terms of real world performance it's a no-brainer. Cycling is way, way cheaper today than it's ever been and equipment is way, way better.

I paid $1600 in ~2003 for a steel lemond Zurich with Ultegra. One wheel got damaged in a crash, but other than that, the bike is still original and rides well, shifts well and brakes well. Not sure what else a bike needs to do.

$1800 for a similarly equipped bike today seems slightly better, on an inflation adjusted basis.

[kramnnim]

The availability of cheap Shimano components from the UK really dropped the price of components. STI levers used to be very difficult to find for under $200.

[unterhausen]

considering the current day dollar price of a schwinn varsity is about $750, I would say it has gotten cheaper.

[benb]

I got my first nice bike in 2000.. I was looking at 105 equipped aluminum bikes at the time... I ended up with a Trek 2200, I had test rode that and a very similar Cannondale.

They were both in the $1650-1700 range. The Trek had a full 105 group, the Cannondale had a bit more expensive frame and had more of their in-house parts as substitutions which I think biased me towards the Trek.

I'm not so sure I think stuff is that much better now.. I think shift quality is better and maybe setup is a bit easier but I think durability is generally down. Wheels have more goofy parts, there are all the weird press fit BBs that seem to have issues, more proprietary parts that wear out, etc..

That being my first road bike I got close to 20k miles over 4+ years out of that 105 group.. and my ability to clean stuff & do maintenance was at it's worst since I was just starting out and I was living in an apartment, didn't own any tools, and didn't have a good space to clean/maintain my bike. I don't feel like I expect to get that many trouble free miles out of modern groups.

I have always rode my bike in salt & stuff in the winter that I shouldn't so my experiences with wearing stuff out are going to be different than someone in warmer areas.

[Jaybee]

Mountain bikes have gotten more expensive at the high end, due to full suspension, dropper posts, hydro brakes, etc. High end consumables are expensive (the XX1 10-42 cassette street price is close to $300.)


This is absolutely true. I'm trying to build a second wheelset for my Eagle equipped bike and just the cassette is sooo expensive.

But it's also true, like AngrySci says that an entry to mid level MTB is more capable than ever. You can spend $1500-2000 and get an eminently capable trail hardtail with components that you can ride until they break. Or spend $2500 and get the same in a trail FS.

[Jaybee]

Nm

[buddybikes]

In some ways not sure. take apart a 1,500 road bike, the hubs, stem, seatpost, seat are all crap, Chinese made. Notice how they make the shiny components (derailleurs, crank) look nice.

But yes there is a huge amount of middle/high end stuff available.

[benb]

This is absolutely true. I'm trying to build a second wheelset for my Eagle equipped bike and just the cassette is sooo expensive.

But it's also true, like AngrySci says that an entry to mid level MTB is more capable than ever. You can spend $1500-2000 and get an eminently capable trail hardtail with components that you can ride until they break. Or spend $2500 and get the same in a trail FS.

Yah very different than road bikes.

When I stared F/S designs had major flaws at nearly any pricepoint that Today's bikes just don't have.

Circa 2000 you didn't have any of the fancy "anti-bob" frame designs or shock designs. You had bikes that had issues with the rear brake locking up when the suspension activated. You had bikes that had issues with the rear derailleur activating under suspension movement... the bikes had very different geometry. Bikes only came in 26" wheel sizes and narrow tire sizes.... it goes on and on!

Road bikes have barely changed in comparison. Even stuff like "endurance bikes" is mostly marketing.. that's just the manufacturers bringing their range of sizes back to where it used to be when bikes were made from steel/aluminum... they reduced the # of sizes when they went to compact frames and made setup harder going to threadless headset/stem designs and then they brought it back by calling some of the sizes a new "endurance" marketing name.

Gravel bikes are often just reversing the trend of getting rid of tire clearances and micro-optimizing for road racing. The geometry differences are tiny compared to the changes in MTBs.

All really slight differences compared to the changes in MTBs.

[mt2u77]

Mass produced cycling stuff is cheaper than it used to be, but the average cyclist's churn rate seems to be increasing. The net result is I don't think we spend any less (relative to income) on cycling than in the past. It seems we've been convinced we need a bike for every occasion, and with ever changing trends, standards, and proprietary parts, each of those bikes is "old" in just a few years.

[oliver1850]

I bought a new Cannondale R4000 CAAD4 frameset for $300 in 1999, and a full Daytona 9 group with hubs and Ambrosio Excellight rims for $350. I may have even gotten the bar and stem included at that price. I don't pay much attention to what's currently available but I doubt there's anything available below $1000 now that would begin to compare to it. There may not even be a current Campagnolo group that can be had with rims and hubs for $650.

[Black Dog]

I think that the Performance/Quality to Cost ratio has never been better. The amount of bike that can be purchased for ~2000 is amazing. The gap in performance between the lower and upper end groups is now very small but the price differential is huge. It is hard to make a rational argument to run the upper end groups anymore. That has reversed from the past.

In the mid eighties a top end bike was about ~2500 and today that bike would be ~5000 adjusted for inflation. Look at the cost for a top end bike today; >$10000!!!! The pricing has grown well beyond inflation for upper end gear. Lucky that for ~$5000 we can get a great bike in most materials with very good parts in the world of extreme diminishing returns.

This MIUSA in Ti for $5200 retail:

https://content.competitivecyclist.com/images/items/900/AOE/AOE0007/RAW.jpg