Grassroots bicycling

Yeah, walked by the magazine counter and BICYCLING magazine had in bold headlines

9 decent rides for under $1100.

Really??? $1100 for something I have to pedal?

HAVE THESE PEOPLE LOST THEIR BERKELEYING MINDS????

For anyone thinking I was talking about bicycles made out of a grass like substance known as bamboo by the deceptive title, Click Here

... if I paid retail to build any of my bikes that I have at the moment it would cost more than that... a resonable set of tires will set you back over $100 another $400 for an decent wheelset and that much for a good frameset... it adds up VERY quickly... the front tire on my MTB retails for $160...

but just like our car hobby... if you know where to shop or shop used you can build your own stuff etc you can save a ton

I bought my last bike for $100 at Target. Shocked front fork, 18 speeds, twist grip shifters, and nice wide offroad tires. Spent 30 minutes adjusting the shifting mechanism and oil it up. My previous bike lasted 18 years and I'm pretty sure my dad paid $100 for it back when I was 14 (Christmas present).

My friend's brother is currently making payment on a bike frame. It was custom made for him by the same guy who makes bikes for Lance Armstrong. The cost? How about $30,000. Yup. $30k for a bike frame. No wheels, nothing else. The frame only. Wheels will cost him a couple grand each. Oh, and the frame is custom to him, pretty much useless for anyone who doesn't have his exact same measurements.

I spent $2700 on my last mountain bike. It has tubeless tires, hydraulic disk brakes, a fork with damping more sophisticated than anything on any motor vehicle I've owned, and weighs probably 15% less than the already-light Klein it replaced.

The frame is Scandium aluminum (not better than a high grade aluminum except that it retains its strength better at welds), the stem's handlebar clamp cap is carbon fiber retained with titanium bolts.

Basically, yeah, a bicycle has fewer parts than a car. But if every one of those parts is really high end stuff... What does it cost to put together one corner of a car's suspension with a Wilwood caliper, aluminum-hat two-piece rotor, tubular A-arms, Fox/Ohlins/Penske damper, and a BBS wheel?

perfect example comparing to a race grade suspension ransom...

Thanks! Of course, Flight Service may not be questioning whether those parts cost that much to make so much as whether you have to be an idiot to buy them...

If so, I disagree (of course). I get much more opportunity to use and appreciate my bicycles than my "fun" car... I ride 3-5 times a week and autocross much less frequently than that.

Let's see..New Trek Madone 4.6 carbon roadbike (te liteness!) last year...$2800.....

Built a Niner single speed mtb the year before....... $1800

2007 Specialized FSRxc Pro mtb bike..... Given to me by a friend for free, equivalent replacement would be $2500+

Most expensive bike I've ridden? Stork carbon roadbike, $13,000 as kitted when I road it...

Is a a $35k Z06 grassroots? When beating a $150k Ferrari around a track, it might be....

Yeah, the article wasn't talking about all out race machines, but solid entry/level equipment.

Full on race equipment is one thing, $1100 to ride on the local trail is something else entirely.

For those that think it is OK, I have a PT Cruiser NA slush box I will sell you for $20K....

I forgot to mention I used to ride my old non-suspension Huffy on the local mountain bike trails HARD. A whopping twelve speeds, stock tires, and Green Slime filled tires. It weighed a ton but I beat it like a yard dog and scared the crap out of the clip-in pedal crowd. I'd show up at the trail with my bike stuffed in my trunk wearing normal shorts, a t-shirt, and a backpack. I'd pull my bike out and swing down the kick stand, check the tires, do my stretches, warm up a little then take off. Kept up with most everyone except on the areas where lower gearing would have helped. I got the occasional nasty look or snide remark about buying a real bike, but by the end of a ride nobody was messing with me.

Man I miss being in good shape...

Buy used, I bought a Giant which retailed around $1,100, for $300 off craigslist with a few upgrades and it was less than 2 years old.

a good example... what is the cheapest NEW car you could buy that you wouldn't mind driving for extended periods?

that $1100 bike is similar... you can buy a Camry ($1100 bike), or you could buy an exotic ($15k+ bike) or you could buy a near 30 year old yugo (big box store bike)

I can't afford the exotic... the yugo doesn't fit me (one size does not fit all in bicycles), so I'll ride my Camry ;-)

(note the yugo comparison is for the rest of the world, not your average GRMer who owns, owned, or wants to own a yugo (yes i've owned one and loved it)

It all depends on where you live. Around here, $1100 would be pretty entry level. Of course, we also have world-class riding. It's the equivalent of the 'Ring for bike guys When people refer to making a pilgrimage to ride your local trails, you know it's pretty good...

I used to chase people around on my old Specialized rigid. Then I picked up a full suspension Rocky Mountain and they started chasing me The equipment does make some difference. Not all of it, but there can be a big difference between a $300 and a $3000 bike. For the $30,000 bike, you're in the Ferrari range and probably have a very strong motivation for saving a tenth of a second.

Enyar wrote: Buy used, I bought a Giant which retailed around $1,100, for $300 off craigslist with a few upgrades and it was less than 2 years old.

yes that is the way to do it... when I bought my surly Karate monkey some years back I got it for $550... the wheelset on the bike would have cost more than that for me to build in parts... rode that thing hard for a few years and sold it for more than I bought it for

for the $1100 i'm more talking specifically about road bikes... $1100 buys you something basic and boring but functional...

$1100 on a typical MTB buys you something that I really don't want to spend time riding... at least not without an upgraded fork... at the price range give me rigid and I'll make due

Same deal with my Rocky Mountain - got it used but almost no hours on it. It's not unusual for people to buy a bike because they're planning to get into riding, but then they don't. Kinda like kit cars

Pro tip: I bought the exact same bike for my wife to replace her cheap and cheery thing. She enjoys riding it so much more because the suspension actually absorbs things instead of bouncing her around. And she really appreciates the fact that I got her a good bike to ride instead of shorting her because she's not as strong a rider as I am? If I want her to ride with me, why shouldn't she have something as good as I do?

Money definitely goes further with road bikes.

When the weather is nice, I ride about 15mi. every day on the GMC Denali road bike I bought at Walmart 5 years ago for $149. I must have nearly 10,000mi. on that by now between biking trips and daily riding!

I bought a reynolds steel Bianchi for $50 from a goodwill while on vacation, and a Bridgestone MTB1 for $40 from a garage sale. Adjusted for inflation, both of those would be north of $2k combined new

My 20" BMX wouldve retailed well north of $1k about 9 years ago when I built it...but I worked at a shop and bought almost all the parts on closeout at distributor cost + 10% over the course of about 6 mos. I bet Im into it for about $250.

I think I did pretty good!

I've got a Bianchi Campione D'Italia that I built up out of found parts when I was working at a bike shop. Even has Celeste Green handlebar tape It's apparently worth something now. Like working on cars, being in the industry sure helps.

Hell, you can spend $400 on ONE golf club these days, and you can't even play golf with just one club!

Or you can spend $500 on a vacuum cleaner.

Meh... I've given up trying to explain how much my bikes costs to those who don't get it. When I was racing DH, I had about $5K tied up in the bike. I will agree it didn't make me any faster, but at the time I wanted the best bike I could (not really...) afford so everything was top-spec.

I'm in the middle of building a new DH-ish bike now. Despite the fact I'm getting the frame, fork and many of the components at a significant discount, it'll still cost over $4K.

It's amuses me that I'll drop that sort of money on a bike without a thought, but that same money on a cheap car like my E30 bugs me... go figure... might be because the bike doesn't cost money (registration & insurance) when not being used, nor do bikes suffer from disuse related problems like a car often does.

Flight Service wrote: Yeah, walked by the magazine counter and BICYCLING magazine had in bold headlines 9 decent rides for under $1100. Really??? $1100 for something I have to pedal? HAVE THESE PEOPLE LOST THEIR BERKELEYING MINDS????

In a word, YES!

I bought a second-hand MTB, a Schwinn Probe, circa 1992, for $100. I'm on my second set of road slicks. I buy a new set every decade or so, whether I need them or not. I ride as often as three times a week, weather permitting. I've cleaned it up and lubed the chain a few times, but I honestly don't think I've even ever replaced the brake pads. I couldn't begin to estimate how many miles I've put on it over the years--many, many thousand, to be sure.

A new bike might be lighter and pedal easier, but my goal is physical fitness, not impressing bicycle snobs, and my antique Schwinn works very nicely.

In reply to 1988RedT2:

If it works for you, great. Seriously.

But a nicer bike is more pleasant to ride in the same way that a better car is nicer to drive; Responsiveness, feedback, the tactile sensations that are so enjoyable are more so on a nicer bike.

I ride nice bikes for the same reason I bought Bilsteins and installed camber plates and so on and so forth. Those bits don't make me a better driver, and they don't impress anyone worth impressing, but they make the car much more pleasant to drive. My bike isn't a piece of fitness equipment to me as much as it is a vehicle and a toy, despite the fitness benefits and association.

And then there is the mechanical lust, which again is so subjective. I'm less prone to drooling on high-end bike bits than I used to be, but not by much. It's very much the same sort of appeal as high-end car parts.

Anyhow, I'm sure everyone gets that it's just another thing that people do or don't understand, and there's no need for everyone to understand it. I think it's sometimes a little surprising to those of us who are into both bikes and cars that other car guys aren't as into bikes, but there's no law that says they've gotta be...

My roommate has a couple really nice bikes (I think the retail on the two is more then what was all three cars I have sitting at my house). Personally I don't get it but different strokes and all that.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Hell, you can spend $400 on ONE golf club these days, and you can't even play golf with just one club! Or you can spend $500 on a vacuum cleaner.

Yes, and I can buy the same club 5 years later for $60 and still hit it farther than you and your new $700(!) club.

I need to cruise craigslist to find a really cheap bike. I will only need it for riding on flat ground for about 7 miles round trip every day.

I spent $1900 on my bike.
Used (though with warranty, which normally doesn't happen for bikes).
Before Mods.

And don't forget my other three bikes, though they together cost less than my main ride. (90's road bike/beater, SSCX, and Dirt jumper)

That being said, my GF also rides avidly, and we ride together anywhere from once to five times a week. And I still spend more money on my meeoter.