bike prices out of wack.......

When I bought my Trek 5200 in 2000 it was the outrageous price of $2100.
It was state of the art. Now in 7 short years the 2007 Madone 6.9 lists for
$8250.00. They haven't listed the Madone 2008 price, but I expect it will
break the $10,000 mark. Can anyone convince me that this bike will be $8000
better than my Trek 5200? Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future too, or
will they blindly go where no man has gone before? I guess if my 5200 frame
ever wears out, I could buy their Lime.

Dans le message de
link.net,
Callistus Valerius a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :
When I bought my Trek 5200 in 2000 it was the outrageous price of
$2100. It was state of the art. Now in 7 short years the 2007 Madone
6.9 lists for $8250.00. They haven't listed the Madone 2008 price,
but I expect it will break the $10,000 mark. Can anyone convince me
that this bike will be $8000 better than my Trek 5200?
Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they know when the
baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to put
together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future
too, or will they blindly go where no man has gone before? I guess
if my 5200 frame ever wears out, I could buy their Lime.

You get older ; you go slower ; it must be the bike ; you buy a
not-very-thrifty box of ego-balm with all the newest goodies ; you're still
slow ; you're no longer young ; your hair thins ; your teeth need
reconstruction ; trifocals ; you buy a Powermeter and it lies, obviously ;
you're slower and slower ; time for more ego-balm, but it's twice the price
; you rent a wind tunnel for a day ; you buy a digital tire pressure gauge ;
teeth capped ; hair disguised ; slower again ; time for the Porsche.
--
Sandy

Ce n'est pas que j'ai peur de la mort.
Je veux seulement ne pas être là
quand elle arrivera.

"Callistus Valerius" wrote:

Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future too, or
will they blindly go where no man has gone before?

Well, if they're making more than twice the profit on each bike, they
can sell half as many and still be ahead of the game. And the amazing
thing is people keep buying new bikes every couple of years in search
of Nirvana.

Art Harris

On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:30:58 +0000, Callistus Valerius wrote:

When I bought my Trek 5200 in 2000 it was the outrageous price of $2100.
It was state of the art. Now in 7 short years the 2007 Madone 6.9 lists for
$8250.00. They haven't listed the Madone 2008 price, but I expect it will
break the $10,000 mark. Can anyone convince me that this bike will be $8000
better than my Trek 5200? Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future too, or
will they blindly go where no man has gone before? I guess if my 5200 frame
ever wears out, I could buy their Lime.

I don't see how you can fault Trek's business sense. They're cashing in on
Lance Armstrong's fame. If the bike's popularity declines, Trek can lower
the price substantially and still make a profit (judging from the price in
2000).

I've seen a few postings here on rbt saying that carbon fiber frames are
appearing at lower and lower price points. Why not buy a more reasonably
priced carbon bike when and if your 5200 wears out? If your response is
that you simply must have a 5200, then I suspect you too are a victim of
Lance hysteria.

On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:30:58 GMT, "Callistus Valerius"
wrote:

Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales.

Not sure you are aware of this, but Trek sells bikes at a wide range
of prices -- they already sell bikes at half the price of the ones you
are talking about.

--
JT
****************************
Remove "remove" to reply
Visit http://www.jt10000.com
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On Jun 7, 5:30 am, "Callistus Valerius" wrote:
When I bought my Trek 5200 in 2000 it was the outrageous price of $2100.
It was state of the art. Now in 7 short years the 2007 Madone 6.9 lists for
$8250.00. They haven't listed the Madone 2008 price, but I expect it will
break the $10,000 mark. Can anyone convince me that this bike will be $8000
better than my Trek 5200? Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future too, or
will they blindly go where no man has gone before? I guess if my 5200 frame
ever wears out, I could buy their Lime.

Trek is the Toyota of bicycles...Ya look at the MadOne...but buy a
lesser priced one cuz it's 'just as good'...like buying a Camry
instead of a Lexus, cuz it's 'just as good'...BUT unlike cars, ya
gotta peddle the thing. I'll bet there are a lot of MadOnes and Scotts
and BMCs that see the light of day only once a week, on Sunday, for
the 'look at my new tits' for the girls at the coffee shop before the
15 mile ride.

Callistus Valerius wrote:
When I bought my Trek 5200 in 2000 it was the outrageous price of $2100.
It was state of the art. Now in 7 short years the 2007 Madone 6.9 lists for
$8250.00. They haven't listed the Madone 2008 price, but I expect it will
break the $10,000 mark. Can anyone convince me that this bike will be $8000
better than my Trek 5200? Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future too, or
will they blindly go where no man has gone before? I guess if my 5200 frame
ever wears out, I could buy their Lime.


Price is a factor, but not like you think.
Often at the high end people buy based on price/status/recognition.
Trek has to remain competitive in price with other high end bikes.

If they sold it for $4,000 it would fall below the radar of the target
market.


Marcus

The following was a $$$urprise! BUT Consdier cycle tire labor costs/
materials, cost of carbon frames: bolt together v laid up together.
There's always the question now: is this a Chinese paddle with USA/
Euro pricing? And profit, without market effects like Surly?
http://www.epickayaks.com/products/?nid=664

On Jun 7, 5:30 am, "Callistus Valerius" wrote:
When I bought my Trek 5200 in 2000 it was the outrageous price of $2100.
It was state of the art. Now in 7 short years the 2007 Madone 6.9 lists for
$8250.00. They haven't listed the Madone 2008 price, but I expect it will
break the $10,000 mark. Can anyone convince me that this bike will be $8000
better than my Trek 5200? Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future too, or
will they blindly go where no man has gone before? I guess if my 5200 frame
ever wears out, I could buy their Lime.

No comparison to the bike you bought. It's a full pound lighter than
last years. Also of interest:

....the carbon fiber on both the frame and fork is precisely "net
molded" to accept headset and bottom bracket bearings with not only no
cups required, but also no machining required. With your hands, you
simply pop in the bearings into the ends of the head tube and the
bottom bracket shell. The only tool required is a hex key to tighten
the headset top cap and to attach the left crankarm on (it takes
integrated-spindle cranks from all major manufacturers).


http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...s/12366.0.html

On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:20:37 +0000, R Brickston wrote:

On Jun 7, 5:30 am, "Callistus Valerius" wrote:
When I bought my Trek 5200 in 2000 it was the outrageous price of $2100.
It was state of the art. Now in 7 short years the 2007 Madone 6.9 lists for
$8250.00. They haven't listed the Madone 2008 price, but I expect it will
break the $10,000 mark. Can anyone convince me that this bike will be $8000
better than my Trek 5200? Harley-Davidson has demographic studies, and they
know when the baby-boom population starts fading, they are going to have to
put together their bikes at half the cost as their present bikes, or face
plummeting sales. Have companies like Trek looked into the future too, or
will they blindly go where no man has gone before? I guess if my 5200 frame
ever wears out, I could buy their Lime.

No comparison to the bike you bought. It's a full pound lighter than
last years. Also of interest:

...the carbon fiber on both the frame and fork is precisely "net
molded" to accept headset and bottom bracket bearings with not only no
cups required, but also no machining required. With your hands, you
simply pop in the bearings into the ends of the head tube and the
bottom bracket shell. The only tool required is a hex key to tighten
the headset top cap and to attach the left crankarm on (it takes
integrated-spindle cranks from all major manufacturers).


http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...s/12366.0.html

This raises a question for me. If simply popping a bearing in by hand is
OK, why do we go to the bother of pressing bearing cups into headsets and
really tightening down on bottom-bracket fixed cups when it comes to steel
and aluminum frames? We do so even if the headtube and bottom bracket have
been properly faced, reamed and threaded, so it seems doubtful that the
tolerances of the appropriate receptacle is the issue.