The mail came right when I was sitting down to some nice leftover pizza for lunch. I've always liked mail and so the arrival of the post each day is an exciting moment. You never know what you are going to get. Today consisted of the usual junk stuff, another credit card offer for Vitzys, an alumni magazine from the school I graduated from years ago and continue to attend now, and a new cycling catalog. The perfect thing to flip through during lunch. I love shiny new bicycles and picking out various things that would be fun to own if I had the money.
But after flipping for awhile I tend to get a little angry at the cycling industry. Is there any reason at all to charge 400$ for a pair of road brakes? They are not at all ornate, or beautifully handcrafted. They are simple, black brakes and they are light. But 400 bucks? C'mon, that's ridiculous. And the worst part is, they are on sale. As a potential consumer I am supposed to feel good that I would save 30$ on these things.
This is just one example of the silly expensive bike things that fill these catalogs, 200$ bib shorts 330$ handle bars are just two other examples. While I have plenty of nice, relatively expensive, bike things, I'm happy to say that my seven year old brakes that cost a fraction of what those black ones cost are still doing a great job of slowing me down when I want them to.
1 comment:
I appreciate high-end bike parts as much as the next guy, and I own a fair number of Phil hubs, Paul brakes, etc. But a lot of this super-bling stuff serves only one purpose: to be sold to the person who absolutely must spend as much money as possible. As a bike shop owner, I can tell you that there are some people who can't sleep at night if there is a bike part out there that costs more than what they're using now.
If you really want some sticker shock, take a look at what old French crap goes for on ebay. I recently saw a TA headset go for $700+. Sure, it's a pretty rare part and TA has always made nice stuff, but it's still just a headset. I know somebody who sold a set of cheapie-plastic Simplex q/r skewers for $300.
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