Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
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The Vital MTB Crew
No idea on the price of carbon fibre.
It was the same with the Intense M29.
2019 Frame: 2.500€
2020 Frame: 3.500€ (After signing with Gwin)
2021 Frame: 3.000€ (Maybe they have noticed it themselves)
Apart from the fact that they are actually never available.
now the base alloy tues (the frame still from '18 witth non metric shock for example) is 3500 with rockshox suspensions, which I'd say is step down from fox "entry level" dh stuff
I'm just saying that this is taking the piss out of the customer...raw material prices because corona or not.
The cost of the bikes is in many things, but not the raw material costs of the Al.
Frame manufacturers likely don't buy raw aluminium, but buy some sort of extrusions that they then hydroform? Do they forge their own parts from blanks or buy special raw blanks? Etc.
The US is the biggest culprit of massively higher prices due almost specifically to California and other states who have ignorant laws preventing the MFG of items based on being "Green". US companies have a massive cost overhead just to be up to standards of delusion (adding costs to the tune of thousands of percent) just to stay within guidelines. The simplest solution is to source materials from nations where the environment is not even an afterthought. A very large portion of the supply chain cost in the US is the cost of labor, insurance, OSHA, EPA, Comp and on and on and on - as we have seen so many do, just move over seas.
With the current fiasco in CA (and DC) we have added taxes, tariffs and regulations that prevent the easy and fast distribution of products that simply creates a penalty for all of us in all segments. To deny that fact is simply fool hardy....I mean, seriously, the cost of PORK is up a massive figure and that is 100% due to California...Until the US and other "Paris Accord" nations get a grip on reality (as in, China, India and on and on)...the only winners are going to be the taxing bodies. We as consumers (to quote Biden) "need to lower our expectations".
This is sold for 200 € in Germany. Any ideas when we can expect a MTB version? I mean surely it's coming?
Lots of alloy frames and rims start at GLM
Specialized Demo Race Frame 2021: 2.899€ with RS Deluxe
Specialized Demo Race Frame 2022: 3.600€ with Öhlins TTX
I don't want to read any campaign slogans from the Republican party right now. It's simply a fact that the customer is being fleeced here.
Louis Vuitton backpacks are more expensive.
Salt Bae steaks are more expensive.
Lamborghini Urus' are more expensive.
Cryptopunk Twitter Avatars are more expensive.
If MTB brands don't put the prices up, how will the employees be able to buy all of the above? It's absolutely criminal that people who work in the industry can't buy themselves a new Richard Mille watch because consumers want cheaper bike parts...
For example, and please correct me of I'm wrong, Honda manufacturer's almost every part of an Enduro moto in house. They have complete control over almost all of their part supply chain other than raw materials to build that bike. They have all their engineers in house. They have all their testing in house. The only price increase you'll see on that moto is raw materials, shipping and wages
An Enduro mountain bike however, has components from various suppliers all over the world. Each if those components also have suppliers for parts, and the parts suppliers may even have suppliers for raw materials. Add in distribution channels, sales reps, shipping, labor between the various steps with everyone taking their small piece of mark up at each step and it starts to add up. Almost every single part is comes from a different supplier, or during different manufacturing cycles from the same one. Frame, cockpit, dropper, shock, fork, hubs, spokes, brakes, etc. How many MTB companies make their own product in house? Even their "In house components" are rarely in house. We're paying for 8 different companies engineering teams on every bike. Most are designing, outsourcing and shipping product that they either never touch, or gets shipped 5 times before it gets to their destination.
It's not that we're getting fleeced, it's that the cycling industry is wildly inefficient and has no way to control price increases if one things gets out of control because no one corrected how the industry grew 30 years ago. Now we're looking at huge cost increases in shipping, raw materials and labor due to demand. Imagine how cheap an all in house developed bike would be if they had a volume to do it. Giant is a great example as their bikes are usually 1000$ less than other brands because they have far less steps to have a finished product to the consumer.
To your point, is a SweetWings (EEWings) crankset worth the money? A handmade bike by top-tier person (not some hipster with a torch)? For me, certainly. But, I will not pay for a rip off Starbucks coffee....go figure.
Everything about our small (first world) market is about options. If you do not like the cost of XTR or XX1, well, friend, you have a ton of other options.