old man yelling at clouds content

[El Chaba]

I really don’t care what equipment anybody else uses. I do ask for the same courtesy in return. However, I feel genuinely bad for people who are just trying to get some nice tools to enjoy our great sport and get stuck with some of these turds dreamt up by the various marketing departments. As mentioned above, $1000 for a stem or bar adjustment….Prior to these “advancements” being introduced by the industry, this was the sort of thing that was easily taken care of at roadside in less than a minute with a single Allen wrench. It’s great to poke fun at ourselves, but it is not cloud shouting to point out the user-unfriendliness of some of these “technologies”…It’s useful. As for this sort of thing having special application for professional racing…..If the big manufacturers had any special dedication to their sponsored riders, I would think that they would start with providing them with bikes that fit instead of going down rabbit holes like this hidden everything craze…

[Plum Hill]

Luddites unite!

[tomato coupe]

The mythical $500 brake hose replacement seems too have morphed into a $1000 handlebar adjustment.

[bicycletricycle]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

The mythical $500 brake hose replacement seems too have morphed into a $1000 handlebar adjustment.

Well, that trek I referenced in the first post takes a 600 dollar proprietary handlebar. What does a shop charge these days for 2 brake bleeds, bar wrap, re rerouting hoses through bars, stems frame or whatever is needed, etc. certainly 200 plus? So 800 for a handlebar swap?

Also, it isn’t too hard to find integrated stem / bars that cost more than 600, is it?

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by bicycletricycle

Well, that trek I referenced in the first post takes a 600 dollar proprietary handlebar. What does a shop charge these days for 2 brake bleeds, bar wrap, re rerouting hoses through bars, stems frame or whatever is needed, etc. certainly 200 plus? So 800 for a handlebar swap?

Do you know anyone that has spent $1000 for a handlebar adjustment?

[bicycletricycle]

I don’t think you are understanding what I am saying or maybe you are just pretending to misunderstand?

I just talked to a nice fella on some kind of giant aero something or other. He had his levers cranked in all funny for aero. I asked him if he had considered getting narrower bars and he said he would like to but the cost was ridiculous. This is one of the consequences of these increased costs.

The other bike I mentioned had a broken handlebar. 600 for the bar from trek or no name Taiwan bar for 250 plus 400 for install. This is a real number.

Do I personally know anyone who has payed 1k to change stem length or bar width? No I do not. I no longer work at a shop and don’t know a lot of cyclist that ride these types of bicycles. I kinda want to go to the local fancy bike dealer to ask if this happens much but I don’t know them well.

But that does not have anything to do with the point being made? The cost is real and that cost has consequences.

I just stopped at a friendly shop and asked them what they would charge in labor to change an integrated bar set up that required double brake bleed . They said depends on the bike and components but they would likely need to remove crank and bb and gave an estimate of 400 dollars.

This isn’t made up.

Now it is true that people who own these bikes are less likely to make cockpit changes because of this cost and it is also true that electronic / hydraulic systems are making work in these areas less frequent.

My point is I don’t think the aero / aesthetic gains are worth the extra cost / decreased flexibility in set up. I also realize that many people do and that is fine with me, that is why I said I was old man yelling at clouds.

What are you disagreeing with exactly?

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

Do you know anyone that has spent $1000 for a handlebar adjustment?

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by bicycletricycle

What are you disagreeing with exactly?

I wasn't disagreeing with anything. I was just asking if you knew anyone that had spent $1000 for a handlebar adjustment. It's been mentioned by several people in this thread as something that seems to happen, but does anyone actually know someone that has paid this?

[bicycletricycle]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

I wasn't disagreeing with anything. I was just asking if you knew anyone that had spent $1000 for a handlebar adjustment. It's been mentioned by several people in this thread as something that seems to happen, but does anyone actually know someone that has paid this?

Well , it isn’t uncommon for the real cost of a bar width or stem length change to be 1k.

I don’t know how often this happens.

The absurd cost of cockpit changes probably does keep people from doing it very often.

[Pastashop]

That these costs are prohibitive, so people don’t is the main point of the discussion, I think?..

In the old days, you’d adjust the height (and somewhat the reach) via a 6 mm Allen bolt on a quill stem. But swapping for a shorter reach stem would require untaping and retaping half the bar.

The big “plus” of open-face stems (aside from other advantages of the threadless system, which came along with the open face feature, but doesn’t have to be so*) was supposed to be an easier stem swap - without the untaping - to tune the comfort of a bike. With the integrated setups, that’s out of the window.

* I have two threadless stems without an “open face” feature, and one quill stem with an open face feature.

The sense of the OP, similar to that crabon biek thread is that for the vast majority of people and uses the classic bike config, with very slight mods for lower gears and fatter tires, is the most versatile and cost effective way to go.

But maybe another view is that the majority of customers really never work in their bikes and don’t want to pay a shop much to swap parts or repack bearings. For them, an all integrated, no visible wires setup is just nicer. And if they need a different fit, well, just trade that whole bike in for a new one?..

I’m genuinely curious to know what a typical bike shop deals with and what their preferred situation might be.

[weisan]

Forget $1k handlebar adjustment, I am more interested in knowing how much it would cost me to receive this special spa treatment for my chain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7EaVo34xQ4&t=5m30s

[Mike V]

Originally Posted by weisan

Forget $1k handlebar adjustment, I am more interested in knowing how much it would cost me to receive this special spa treatment for my chain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7EaVo34xQ4&t=5m30s

That’s what I do after every ride