All

These features are a lot of fun. The links and audio in the graphics are great bonus. Gwin to win and hoping for Troy to make a statement with this race. Also very surprised to see no mention of Tracy...

I am a bike mechanic, $8000 bikes are in general, are easy to fix. It is unnecessary to charge more than 80 bucks for a tune up on that bike because you could work on it all day long and charge 1000 bucks but at the end of the day its only going to get marginally better than a 2 hour tune up. At the other end of the spectrum, you could polish a terd of a bike all day long and it won't shift a lick better. Said terd owner is going to be really happy he spend 100...

This economic reality is why I went to grad school and don't work as a mechanic anymore. Wages is the intersection of supply and demand, and there are a lot of pieces that go into that beyond the skill or difficulty of work performed. There definitely is more skill involved in being a mechanic than all the other jobs mentioned, but that is only a small part of the picture. Why sometimes higher skill might equal higher wages is because that difficulty creates a barrier to entry and restricts supply, not many people have the skills to be molecular engineers...

Yeah, because LBS owners are making soooooo much money. No one makes real money in the bike industry. A lot of people make a living, and some people who are really really really good at what they do make decent money, but anyone in the bike industry who's even reasonably good at their job could be making 100% more in any almost other segment of the economy. People work in the bike industry because they love bikes, and they're willing to deal with a lot of shit to do what they love. Pay reflects that.

The answer is simple: it's work that most avid riders can learn to do themselves... for everyone else, there are college students wrenching their way through school so they don't have to be a shop wrench for the rest of their lives... it's either that, or they put in their time toward the experience needed to eventually get their own shop so they can make a measly $40/year and pay another kid $20k to continue the cycle (no pun intended). Few wrench for long. All that said, I'd much rather wrench in a shop for $20k than sling pizzas at...

I think most people with high-end bikes (and in theory more disposable income) tend to be enthusiasts and decent home mechanics, and as a result they don't need to take their rides to the shop as often. When I was a mechanic most of my time was spent fixing low-end bikes and commuters, though I did occasionally see some nice rides. Point being, perhaps those that would be willing to spend more on a good tune/service are already taking care of it themselves. As a result it's hard to justify a price hike. Then again, does a low-end ride typically...

90% of bike sold are not 8k bikes