Silca Ti cage - $70, really?!?

[pdmtong]

Originally Posted by gdw

"Whether or not you want or need Ti cages is another story altogether, but I can assure you that after building a US manufacturing facility, staffing it with skilled employees who make a living wage with benefits, all operating high quality custom machines, tooling, and aerospace laser welders, to stamp, form, cut, lathe turn, form the tube, deoxidize, butt weld, marry together, deoxidize again, plate weld, dimensionally inspect, and finally hand buff each cage for a total of more than 40 minutes of direct hand labor per cage across more than a dozen pieces of machinery, that if you were to come here and see it first hand you might wonder how the heck we can sell them for ONLY $70"

Wow.

as the head of the company what do you expect him to say? at least josh spoke objectively and did not try to "sell" with subjective commentary.

FWIW I dont find the mounting slot approach of the silca useful, and I like the cleaner mounting points of the king. cool the silca has bolts, but the basic ones I have are just fine for my builds. the only ti cage I see wanting I already have - it's the moots blasted king on my Moots CR. the other metal bikes get king iris....

[ChristianWong]

Originally Posted by I Want Sachs?

Got it.

My point was that $55 calling $70 expensive, when $5 can serve the same function.

It is basically how one justifies what is value. Everyone is free to spend how they please. I definitely would buy the $70 from Silca before $55 from Blackburn if I was going Titanium at all.

I would argue that it's not the same function. A while back, I launched my last bottle from a Blackburn stainless cage and now only Kings are allowed in my house. I'd certainly bend the rule for a Silca. I think the price is within reason, especially with Ti bolts included (if that's your thing).

[simonov]

Originally Posted by ChristianWong

I would argue that it's not the same function. A while back, I launched my last bottle from a Blackburn stainless cage and now only Kings are allowed in my house. I'd certainly bend the rule for a Silca. I think the price is within reason, especially with Ti bolts included (if that's your thing).

I'd add that everyone I know with the blackburn Ti cages has had them break from regular use. King cages on the other hand....

[mdeth1313]

I'm in - they got me with this: butt weld, marry together

[squall1]

Got my pair the other day. Worth the money imo and have better finishing than King Ti which I also have a couple sets of. Quite happy with them and happy to support those making them.

[jpritchet74]

If you don't care about the sweet ti bolts they have some display cages on sale at $49 each.

https://silca.cc/collections/velo-sa...aging-hardware

[joshatsilca]

Sorry, the dozen or so of those we had sold super fast!! We refresh our tradeshow and demo fleet 2x per year and offer the samples to members of our email list.

We also offer that list cool contests and such, this year we gave away some custom tool kits, 2 signed Peter Sagan jerseys and the sister pump to Peter Sagan's personal 2018 pump that the team had painted for him!

If you want to sign up you can do so HERE

[Alaska Mike]

I was glad I got a pair of those cages while I had the chance. Almost jumped at a few tools, but decided to restrain myself this time around.

[bikinchris]

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

I have bought the SS kings for as low as $13... they are a bargain and a great cage. Funny enough, and imo they are better looking than the TI cages... the TI cages are too thick and look weird on skinny steel bikes... they look fine on large tubed ti bikes

Stainless is less likely to mark bottles than Ti. It weighs pretty much the same and costs less.

[happycampyer]

I picked up a pair at the Philly Bike Expo at special show pricing, so that was nice. I have a dozen or so King cages on different bikes, including some of the Moots bead-blasted ones, and I have to say that the Silca cages are clearly more refined in their fabrication. The welds and joints are cleaner.

Josh P wasn’t at the Philly show (or at least not when I stopped by), but I had a chance to speak with him at the NAHBS in Hartford. It is clear that Josh is about as big a tech geek (in a good way) as they get. An enormous amount of thought goes into everything he designs.

These threads about relative value get a bit tiresome. It’s possible to buy an entire bike for the price of a pair of King cages. The whole industry is ridiculous if you put it in that perspective. Moots’ RSL stem is $600, and their standard stem is $425. A firefly stem is $350, a relative bargain!

[froze]

Silca is riding the wave of gouging cyclists because they can and people will pay. But if you absolutely must have a TI cage and nothing else will satisfy you then look at an Andrews King, theirs is only $59. Blackburn also makes one for $54 which looks just as good as the others and weighs less than the Silca, for the money this wants looks nicer than the others, so this is the one I would get...but I wouldn't buy a TI cage!

[m4rk540]

I just spent $80 on two sours and an imperial stout, tip included. I wish artisanal beer were as affordable as artisanal bicycle components.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by froze

Silca is riding the wave of gouging cyclists because they can and people will pay. But if you absolutely must have a TI cage and nothing else will satisfy you then look at an Andrews King, theirs is only $59. Blackburn also makes one for $54 which looks just as good as the others and weighs less than the Silca, for the money this wants looks nicer than the others, so this is the one I would get...but I wouldn't buy a TI cage!

Good people. Replaced Two Ti cages that were intentionally damaged.

[froze]

Originally Posted by m4rk540

I just spent $80 on two sours and an imperial stout, tip included. I wish artisanal beer were as affordable as artisanal bicycle components.

Russian Imperial Stout is my favorite beer, I only buy dark beer when I'm at a restaurant, if they don't dark beer I don't buy any beer.

[pdmtong]

Originally Posted by happycampyer

I picked up a pair at the Philly Bike Expo at special show pricing, so that was nice. I have a dozen or so King cages on different bikes, including some of the Moots bead-blasted ones, and I have to say that the Silca cages are clearly more refined in their fabrication. The welds and joints are cleaner.

Josh P wasn’t at the Philly show (or at least not when I stopped by), but I had a chance to speak with him at the NAHBS in Hartford. It is clear that Josh is about as big a tech geek (in a good way) as they get. An enormous amount of thought goes into everything he designs.

These threads about relative value get a bit tiresome. It’s possible to buy an entire bike for the price of a pair of King cages. The whole industry is ridiculous if you put it in that perspective. Moots’ RSL stem is $600, and their standard stem is $425. A firefly stem is $350, a relative bargain!

Looks like despite my grumbling I'll be buying a pair at nahbs in 2019