What makes a bicycle so expensive?
What makes a bicycle so expensive?
There are some brands of bicycles that can cost more than the down payment on a car. Why? Surely making a bike lightweight and reliable isn't so difficult that it warrants that price? Is it just the brand name or maybe it has to do with customization options?
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The answer is economy of scale, the collapse of the American manufacturing industry, bloated budgets, especially brand/marketing budgets, and the prices set by OEM manufacturers who themselves have bloated budgets. A lot of these brands arent actually manufacturers but middlemen for manufacturers. They do design, service, marketing and maybe assembly. But manufacturing is primarily done overseas. If it's manufactured domestically the labor and material costs are commensurate. Maybe the frame is made domestically, maybe not.
A perfectly decent bicycle is less than $100 in China.
"some brands of bikes" make frames out of carbon fiber with wireless derailleurs and have rear facing radar to detect when other bikes or vehicles are approaching, how fast, and on which side.
When your exercise, your recreation, your hobby, and your transportation are all the same thing, it's easy to justify spending more to make those things as easy and pleasant as possible.
You can get a perfectly usable bike for very little money in America... Probably still made in China though 😂
I put it to you that $100 buys more bike in China than it does in the US.
You have just discovered purchasing power!
I don't understand the sarcasm here. My comment was perfectly relevant to the OPs question. Yours sounds condescending. Are you being condescending? Because that's not very nice. I eat the rude.
A perfectly reasonable bike is $100 in America too. A really good bike is much more expensive in both places.
I wish there was a service that you could give a price range to and it would find the best used bike on craigslist and other bike sales sites in your area.
Am I located in China? No.
Will I relocate to China? No.
Then why bring this hell hole up?
Because when talking about the economics of specialty outdoor products in the US market you have to recognize that manufacturing for most US consumer products is in China. Settle down