Crazy low bike prices

[ChrisL]

WOChrisL’s bike needed some work done so I took her bike to my shop.  I was amazed how low bike prices are right now.  105 equipped Bianchi’s for under $3K.  I was lusting over a Steel Tomassini with Campy Chorus for $5K.   I almost walked out with it. 

As a slight gripe, we try to support my friends shop as much as possible but jeebus she charges an arm & a leg for service. We had her replace a chain and it was $100.  $40 for the chain, $60 to put it on?  They are replacing a cable & housings, replacing her handlebar & new tape for $120.  The bar itself was $60…

[shootingstar]

41 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

WOChrisL’s bike needed some work done so I took her bike to my shop.  I was amazed how low bike prices are right now.  105 equipped Bianchi’s for under $3K.  I was lusting over a Steel Tomassini with Campy Chorus for $5K.   I almost walked out with it. 

As a slight gripe, we try to support my friends shop as much as possible but jeebus she charges an arm & a leg for service. We had her replace a chain and it was $100.  $40 for the chain, $60 to put it on?  They are replacing a cable & housings, replacing her handlebar & new tape for $120.  The bar itself was $60…

I will be paying close to $300.00 to replace cassette and chain completely, clean bike, etc.  My bike is quite dirty.  Of course, our pricing is in CAN $.  I decided to hang onto my worn front tire 1 more yr. even with a few light pit holes in tire. Should be ok for the type of riding I normally do.

  2 yrs. ago, I only replaced the back tire (Schwable, blue liner) which got worn down so much more because of the grocery weight  that I ride with often.  Otherwise, I'm a lightweight person and wouldn't bust any tires fast. 

[Randomguy]

11 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

WOChrisL’s bike needed some work done so I took her bike to my shop.  I was amazed how low bike prices are right now.  105 equipped Bianchi’s for under $3K.  I was lusting over a Steel Tomassini with Campy Chorus for $5K.   I almost walked out with it. 

As a slight gripe, we try to support my friends shop as much as possible but jeebus she charges an arm & a leg for service. We had her replace a chain and it was $100.  $40 for the chain, $60 to put it on?  They are replacing a cable & housings, replacing her handlebar & new tape for $120.  The bar itself was $60…

Hmm, it sounds like you should talk to your friend about the costs.  A fair profit is fine, but putting a chain on is a five-minute job.

[a bunch of numbers]

1 minute ago, Randomguy said:

Hmm, it sounds like you should talk to your friend about the costs.  A fair profit is fine, but putting a chain on is a five-minute job.

Friend needs a boat too, not just his doctor.

[ChrisL]

2 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

Hmm, it sounds like you should talk to your friend about the costs.  A fair profit is fine, but putting a chain on is a five-minute job.

I know her shop is hurting on sales & she used to not be that expensive.  I have the tools & know how to put a chain on but figured I’d help her out.  Then about crapped myself when she rang me up… 

[shootingstar]

@ChrisL  How do these Canadian prices compare?  Endurance & Gravel - The Bike Shop    A good friend bought a new gravel road Trek bike for $2,800CAN  back in Dec. and it was discounted.  I was a little surprised how incredibly light the bike was.. aluminum with carbon forks.  It's a bike she rides here and will store at her vacation condo when she returns to Toronto. So no point, for her to spend so much more money on a bike. She loves her bike.

She is shorter than I @4'11". 

[ChrisL]

2 minutes ago, a bunch of numbers said:

Friend needs a boat too, not just his doctor.

More like food… She actually had to take a second job to keep her shop afloat…

[ChrisL]

6 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

@ChrisL  How do these Canadian prices compare?  Endurance & Gravel - The Bike Shop    A good friend bought a new gravel road Trek bike for $2,800 back in Dec. and it was discounted.  I was a little surprised how incredibly light the bike was.. aluminum with carbon forks.  It's a bike she rides here and will store at her vacation condo when she returns to Toronto. So no point, for her to spend so much money on a bike. She loves her bike.

Pretty close but my shop seems to have some better deals.  This is the Bianchi we were looking at:

[bikeman564™]

17 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

$40 for the chain, $60 to put it on? 

That does seem high because it takes a few minutes.

When I had the new crank installed on my CAAD 10 he only charged me $25, and that was to replace the cassette, chain, crank, & BB bearings. But I also spent a grand for the parts.  Either way, that seemed extremely reasonable. I was at the store about an hour-twenty, and I'd say it took him about 45 minutes to do it.

[maddmaxx ★]

1 hour ago, ChrisL said:

WOChrisL’s bike needed some work done so I took her bike to my shop.  I was amazed how low bike prices are right now.  105 equipped Bianchi’s for under $3K.  I was lusting over a Steel Tomassini with Campy Chorus for $5K.   I almost walked out with it. 

As a slight gripe, we try to support my friends shop as much as possible but jeebus she charges an arm & a leg for service. We had her replace a chain and it was $100.  $40 for the chain, $60 to put it on?  They are replacing a cable & housings, replacing her handlebar & new tape for $120.  The bar itself was $60…

That's one of the reasons I learned to fix and build my own bicycles.  Our LBS charged way too much for labor.  They're gone now.

[groupw]

Pricing labor is walking a razor’s edge. Too little and you lose basically free money that is needed. Too much and people will go elsewhere. Maybe take your friend aside and tell her you’re happy to help, but she needs to get her rates in line with the competition. 

[dinneR ★]

$60 is a lot to install a chain. We have one local shop that charges $150/hour for labor. Yikes. I know the owner and manager, but I can't afford those rates. Two other shops have lower rates and do work for free for me. Yesterday, I needed a compressor. I had set up two sets of wheels tubeless. One tire would not seat. I went into the shop where I had purchased the Stan's earlier that day. The owner hit it with the compressor. I was in and out in under a minute. No charge. We discussed tire direction. I had the tire mounted backward. He noticed and I explained it was intentional. He liked my thinking.

[ChrisL]

1 hour ago, groupw said:

Pricing labor is walking a razor’s edge. Too little and you lose basically free money that is needed. Too much and people will go elsewhere. Maybe take your friend aside and tell her you’re happy to help, but she needs to get her rates in line with the competition. 

Probably would have been better to do this than go elsewhere but…

1 hour ago, dinneR said:

$60 is a lot to install a chain. We have one local shop that charges $150/hour for labor. Yikes. I know the owner and manager, but I can't afford those rates. Two other shops have lower rates and do work for free for me. Yesterday, I needed a compressor. I had set up two sets of wheels tubeless. One tire would not seat. I went into the shop where I had purchased the Stan's earlier that day. The owner hit it with the compressor. I was in and out in under a minute. No charge. We discussed tire direction. I had the tire mounted backward. He noticed and I explained it was intentional. He liked my thinking.

My shop and another MTB specific shop I frequent  has helped me out with little things a bunch of times, often with no charge.   Before I got my tube booster the MTB shop would seat my tires for no charge as well.  That’s why I went where I did… I didn’t want to mess with it and knew I wouldn’t get gouged. 

[Longjohn ★]

1 hour ago, dinneR said:

We discussed tire direction. I had the tire mounted backward. He noticed and I explained it was intentional. He liked my thinking.

You do a lot of riding backwards? 

[Longjohn ★]

When my derailleur hanger and derailleur broke two days into my eight day ride last July I limped into a town as a single speed. I found a Trek bike shop and while they were trying to fix my bike I was checking out all their bikes. I found a Trek mountain bike at an amazing price. I thought about buying it and having them ship my bike home. 
They managed to McGuiver an improvised hanger and took a derailleur off one of the bikes in the showroom to get me going and finish the ride.

[BuffJim]

3 hours ago, dinneR said:

$60 is a lot to install a chain. We have one local shop that charges $150/hour for labor. Yikes. I know the owner and manager, but I can't afford those rates. Two other shops have lower rates and do work for free for me. Yesterday, I needed a compressor. I had set up two sets of wheels tubeless. One tire would not seat. I went into the shop where I had purchased the Stan's earlier that day. The owner hit it with the compressor. I was in and out in under a minute. No charge. We discussed tire direction. I had the tire mounted backward. He noticed and I explained it was intentional. He liked my thinking.

I got your obscure literary reference.

[BuffJim]

1 hour ago, Longjohn said:

When my derailleur hanger and derailleur broke two days into my eight day ride last July I limped into a town as a single speed. I found a Trek bike shop and while they were trying to fix my bike I was checking out all their bikes. I found a Trek mountain bike at an amazing price. I thought about buying it and having them ship my bike home. 
They managed to McGuiver an improvised hanger and took a derailleur off one of the bikes in the showroom to get me going and finish the ride.

That happened time on the last day of my cross country trip. Did the last 80 miles in one gear. Fun Times.

[Longjohn ★]

1 hour ago, BuffJim said:

That happened time on the last day of my cross country trip. Did the last 80 miles in one gear. Fun Times.

Until mine broke I didn’t know they could break just from vibration of riding on gravel. My Lynskey has a proprietary hanger only sold by Lynskey. After I got home I ordered a couple hangers and replaced the McGuivered one. I had to add some extra tools to my tool bag. I don’t know why they made it so complicated to replace.

[Bikeguy]

8 hours ago, ChrisL said:

We had her replace a chain and it was $100.  $40 for the chain, $60 to put it on?

My Park chain tool I use on my Shimano chains would have paid for itself after one chain replacement.   I have saved a lot of money over the last 20 years. 

[dinneR ★]

30 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Until mine broke I didn’t know they could break just from vibration of riding on gravel. My Lynskey has a proprietary hanger only sold by Lynskey. After I got home I ordered a couple hangers and replaced the McGuivered one. I had to add some extra tools to my tool bag. I don’t know why they made it so complicated to replace.

UDH is fixing that on mt bikes.

[Longjohn ★]

1 hour ago, dinneR said:

UDH is fixing that on mt bikes.

What is UDH?

[dinneR ★]

1 hour ago, Longjohn said:

What is UDH?

Universal derailleur hanger

[Razors Edge ★]

21 hours ago, ChrisL said:

I almost walked out with it. 

You are SO DISAPPOINTING!

Yeah, my feeling on this - the "steep" discounts is more in line with a "return to almost reasonable", and still not particularly discounted to realistic prices.  I've considered a few of those "deals" and come back to the fact it's still as or slightly more than my existing bike bought in the normal days of pricing.  To me, I don't think a grand off or even $2,600 off an insanely inflated price is enough to get me to jump on a "deal".  Drop that Tarmac or Ethos to $8k, and I'm on it. $10.4k ain't even close to crazy or low enough.  But I do need to drop by an LBS and see if they are further discounts on the floor.

[Randomguy]

9 hours ago, dinneR said:

Universal derailleur hanger

Is this a recent thing?  I broke two derailer hangers on different bikes, and had to special order both.   The waiting is the hardest part, fortunately I had backup bikes at the time of each breakage.

[Randomguy]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

You are SO DISAPPOINTING!

Yeah, my feeling on this - the "steep" discounts is more in line with a "return to almost reasonable", and still not particularly discounted to realistic prices.  I've considered a few of those "deals" and come back to the fact it's still as or slightly more than my existing bike bought in the normal days of pricing.  To me, I don't think a grand off or even $2,600 off an insanely inflated price is enough to get me to jump on a "deal".  Drop that Tarmac or Ethos to $8k, and I'm on it. $10.4k ain't even close to crazy or low enough.  But I do need to drop by an LBS and see if they are further discounts on the floor.

I am stuck in the past on pricing, having bought and sold so many of them.  In my mind, a meat and potatoes carbon 105 bike should in no way exceed $2,500 retail, no matter what.

Most of my personal bikes were pro deals, so I almost always had nice stuff to ride.  Hooked on DA, never bought anything lower than that, except for chains, cassettes, and brake shoes when replacing them.  If I were buying new now, I would be looking for a no-nonsense 105 bike and call it good.  I am never going to be fast enough to justify much more than that.

[Longjohn ★]

10 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

Is this a recent thing?  I broke two derailer hangers on different bikes, and had to special order both.   The waiting is the hardest part, fortunately I had backup bikes at the time of each breakage.

I thought I was up shit creek after mine broke two days into an eight day ride. I took the derailleur off and rode 11 miles as a single speed. I didn’t want to ride the next six days that way. The Trek dealer I found in the next town called a dozen bike shops looking for a Lynskey dealership to try to find a hanger. Meanwhile he put his best mechanic on trying to improvise something. I was back on the road within four hours with a new derailleur and a McGuivered hanger.

[dinneR ★]

41 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

Is this a recent thing?  I broke two derailer hangers on different bikes, and had to special order both.   The waiting is the hardest part, fortunately I had backup bikes at the time of each breakage.

The last couple of years. Sram developed it. It is Thru-axle only. I've only seen it on mt bikes. Sram has eliminated the hanger on AXS drivetrains. I bought one and carry it bikepacking. Your bike has to be recent and UDH compatible.

https://www.universalderailleurhanger.com/

[ChrisL]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

You are SO DISAPPOINTING!

Yeah, my feeling on this - the "steep" discounts is more in line with a "return to almost reasonable", and still not particularly discounted to realistic prices.  I've considered a few of those "deals" and come back to the fact it's still as or slightly more than my existing bike bought in the normal days of pricing.  To me, I don't think a grand off or even $2,600 off an insanely inflated price is enough to get me to jump on a "deal".  Drop that Tarmac or Ethos to $8k, and I'm on it. $10.4k ain't even close to crazy or low enough.  But I do need to drop by an LBS and see if they are further discounts on the floor.

Well we do have to go back to pick up the bike! 😁.   My Ritchey is everything I want in a bike so I think I’m good but never say never… I’m actually really looking at E bikes as a commuter.  I could ride a conventional bike to work but the idea of not kitting up & just stepping off the bike & going to work is appealing. 

I’ve been jonesing for something like this:

https://www.wheelworld.com/product/benno-escout-10d-performance-sport-401348-1.htm

 

[jsharr ★]

I am old and stuck in the past.  $3000 - $5000 for a bike seems very expensive to me.  That is cheap used car territory.  

[ChrisL]

10 minutes ago, jsharr said:

I am old and stuck in the past.  $3000 - $5000 for a bike seems very expensive to me.  That is cheap used car territory.  

Priorities I guess… New bikes aren’t cheap but you can still get a helluva bike under $3K.

[Razors Edge ★]

24 minutes ago, jsharr said:

I am old and stuck in the past.  $3000 - $5000 for a bike seems very expensive to me.  That is cheap used car territory.  

 

2 hours ago, Randomguy said:

I am stuck in the past on pricing, having bought and sold so many of them.  In my mind, a meat and potatoes carbon 105 bike should in no way exceed $2,500 retail, no matter what.

Most of my personal bikes were pro deals, so I almost always had nice stuff to ride.  Hooked on DA, never bought anything lower than that, except for chains, cassettes, and brake shoes when replacing them.  If I were buying new now, I would be looking for a no-nonsense 105 bike and call it good.  I am never going to be fast enough to justify much more than that.

This is tempting.  But still not "crazy".