Thursday, October 2, 2008

Dizzying Heights: Popping the Road Bike Bubble

As I've mentioned, I did not attend Interbike, and after browsing the various photo galleries and looking at the various products on display, I can't say that I have any regrets. Until now, that is. A reader recently forwarded me a picture of the new Moots CoMooter, which I've just had a look at, and which can be yours for a very reasonable $8,750:

Given the current state of the economy I'm not even sure the kinds of jobs you'd commute to on an $8,750 bicycle even exist anymore, but then again it does have those "meticulous Moots welds." So if you're the kind of person who wears driving loafers, throws catered barbecues, and uses a timepiece instead of a watch, this might be the bicycle for you. And of course, it's titanium, and as we all know titanium lasts forever and as such is the material of choice for the "last bike you'll ever buy." At least that's what everybody used to say during titanium's heyday in the 90s. You'd think that by now everyone would have switched over to titanium bikes with meticulous welds, instead of continuing to ride bikes made out of other materials with slipshod welds. But then again, people are stupid and don't know what's good for them.

But while an $8,750 titanium bike may last forever, it's unlikely that it will last forever with you if you're using it for commuting. Sure, you may be able to bring your bike inside with you at work, but you can't bring it inside everywhere. You've got to leave a commuter outside once in a while. So when this one has been stolen from you, you'll have to console yourself with the fact that the person who took it will get a lifetime of satisfaction out of its unsurpassed durability, resilient ride, and meticulous welds. At least, until it gets taken from him in turn. Essentially, when you buy the Moots CoMooter, you're personally funding an extremely expensive and exotic bike-share program.

Then again, given the current rate of bicycle MSRP inflation, $8,750 isn't all that much these days. The top-of-the-line road bike from the Great Trek Bicycle Making Company goes for $9,129.99, and it has no welds, meticulous or otherwise:

This is a truly impressive price point, especially considering how unlikely it is that anybody who would pay full MSRP for this bike might actually be able to use it to its full potential. If you're that competitive on the road chances are you're either fully sponsored or you're one of those "full-time" bike racers who shops exclusively via mail order, couch surfs instead of paying rent, and does some coaching on the side in order to pay for registration fees and gas. Which is not to say that Trek should not be allowed to sell a bicycle for $9,129.99 to delusional people. Just like the guy selling his Pista on Craigslist, they're free to ask whatever they want for their bicycles. And they also offer plenty of other less expensive bicycles for those who have a more realistic perspective on the relationship between their needs and their abilities.

Still, though, it's hard not to notice that performance-oriented bikes are getting really expensive. After checking out the Madone 6.9, I went as far back into the Trek archives as their website goes (which is 2003) and took a look at the then-top of the line 5900. The Trek site no longer lists the MSRP for this bike, but a little research yielded that you could purchase their Tour-winning superbike for $4,729.99:


So basically, it now costs about twice as much money to own Trek's "best" road bike as it did only five years ago. Now I'm no economist, but I think the technical term for something that's doubled in price over five years is "Bubblicious." And it's not only happening at the top. The price jumps are pretty big down the line, too. The more realistically-equipped Madone 5.2 with Ultegra SL goes for $4,119.99:

While the equivalent 2003 bike, the 5200, went for $2,749.99:

That's definitely not as big an increase as you see at the very top of the line, but it's still an impressive 50% price jump.

Of course, at least part of the reason for this is that Trek's OCLV frames are made in the USA, right? Perhaps. But that's not true of Specialized, whose top-of-the-line road bike goes for $8,500:




As opposed to the $4,230 their 2003 top-of-the-line bike once cost:

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "That '03 bike wasn't even carbon." This is true. But really, when you're paying for a top-of-the-line road bike, you're paying for the perception, not the performance. The Madone 6.9 isn't $5,010.00 better than the Madone 5.2, and the Specialized Tarmac SL2 certainly isn't 100% better than the E5. I think even the people who buy these bikes realize that. But that perception is getting really, really expensive. Again, I've got nothing against companies trying to sell expensive bicycles (so long as I'm not forced to buy them), but you'd think they'd all get together and agree to take it easy for a little while before they hit plaid. Seriously, they're heading into MeiVici territory.

The least these companies could do is come up with some better acronyms. Trek is still using "OCLV" for its carbon, which stands for something like "Optimum Cost Low Validity." Meanwhile, Specialized are going with "FACT" for their carbon, which I think means "Forget About Considering Trek." They could both learn a thing or two from Campagnolo, who now use CULT:

Not only that, but they also use "Advanced by FAG" technology, which they don't even bother to explain. Whatever it is, though, you can rest assured that it "achieved exceptional results in the salt spray fog test," and that's more than enough to convince me to join the CULT of FAG. Between that and the fact that I ride a Moots CoMooter constructed entirely out of non-corrosive titanium, I may never have to fear salt spray fogs again.

114 comments:

Anonymous said...

whoa. i did it! raising arms

Anonymous said...

crowd cheers...

Luck E. 7 said...

A salmon is a salmon.


A

Daddo said...

Fishy!

Mark said...

PODI UMHO

Erik W. Laursen said...

Top 10. Still a Leipheimer.

Anonymous said...

6?

ryanfromdeland said...

podium?

ant1 said...

ant1st!

Sprocketboy said...

If you want to compare carbon bikes, the first Specialized Tarmac E5 came out in 2004 and was probably still "only" $4500, so we are looking at a whole lot of Bubbleliciousness indeed. With all these road bikes being sold in greater quantity, wouldn't you expect the price of bikes to actually drop with volume? This appears to be Paulson Economics.

Anonymous said...

Aww come on, you're making me laugh out loud at work!

Anonymous said...

His name was Robert Paulson.

AH said...

CoMotion should have instead named it the "MoCooter," which means something VERY different in Kentucky.

Anonymous said...

As the Blogs keep rolling, I become more and more convinced that either
A: BSNYC in fact IS the infamous Lucho Metales of metal Inquisition fame, or that
B: one is shamelessly biting the prose style of the other.
You be the judge.

Davey D said...

top somethin'

So the Moots could only be cooler if it was a SS for that kind of scrill. Out here in the west, the pro bike races are mostly crawling with Orbeas and Cervolos, Treks are kind of like the white trash option... Like showing up in a Suburban instead of an X5

kale said...

Wanna Lick?

Anonymous said...

Moots sounds like something you catch after a night with an unclean woman.
"..uh, you may want to go get checked a doctor, last night was awesome, but I think I have moots. It burns."

OCLV also sounds like something that prevents you from ever having sex again, "lie down, but quietly, my OCLV is acting up.", or a mental condition, "i coulda passed high skule, but I had not yet been diagnosed with OCLV."

But FAG, well, that's obvious, the German manufacturing company. Scheaffer group industrial, also known as INA/FAG (I'm not making this up). An entire company and website dedicated to gay engineering, promising , if you come over to the other side, "Freedom from Maintenance " and "less friction". all that's required when you work there are white gloves with "FAG" written on them in red.
This is not to be confused with the film actors guild, completely different F.A.Gs.

specialrider said...

I do love drafting off someone with one of these high end bikes in a race...using their wasted money to my advantage!

Daddo said...

I'd like to suggest you buy a really silly and stupid $4000 commuter that you can show off at the office and donate $4000 to charity.

My commuter is a 30 year old raleigh - 100 bucks

Unknown said...

It's shocking people even showed up to the tour in '03. I mean, 9 speeds? How did Lance even finish, much less win?

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna use my govement bailout money for one a them top o the line bikes.

Anonymous said...

Death to Video Drome!!!

Anonymous said...

It's shocking people even showed up to the tour in '08. I mean, 10 speeds? How did Carlos even finish, much less win?

libertyonbikes! said...

is holding onto your campy 9 and a steel frame make you the same guy that refused to trade from vinyl to 8 track to cassette to cd to mp3? is being a 'retro grouch' going to be redefined as 'one with common sense'? i guess tacky rolling billboards need to exist just like conceptual-no-talent-boy bands, so it's easier to find the 'challenged'.

ant1 said...

The reason people showed up to the Tour with less than 11 gears in the past is that they had more dope. As the amount of dope has gone down, the number of gears has increased. T = G x D. To maintain an even Tour (T) as doping (D) decrease, gears (G) must accordingly increase.
Which in a way is bad news, since no doping would require and infinite number of gears, which would in turn have an infinite mass, creating a black hole and swallowing up the entire cycling world.
I guess that answers the whole "will we ever see a clean Tour?" question: no light escapes the event horizon, you will not see it when it happens.

Anonymous said...

~9 Grand is not too much to pay for an "all Ti" commuter... but this one has aluminum fenders.

Tom said...

I think the Senate has ordered two bikes for each of its members. AH, these trying times.

Unknown said...

Hilarious!!!

bikesgonewild said...

...re: "How did Carlos even finish, much less win?"...

...ah, commiecanuk...i believe a french laboratory is working on an answer to that, as we speak...

Anonymous said...

Oh honestly BSNYC, of course you know that Trek's OCLV stands for "Optimum Compaction Low Void."

And everybody knows that refers to an embarrassing prostate/bladder problem.

I mean, who hasn't seen those Flo Max commercials of the older guys blissfuly riding steel bikes great distances between pit stops?

Bran fiber, not carbon fiber, for those cog cognoscenti.

But as for the economics ....

The prices haven't gone up so much as the dollar has gone down.

It now costs American manufacturers 48 cents an hour for the carbon fiber production labor that used to cost 24 cents an hour.

Maybe that guy who used to post as Upper Class can tear himself away from the street corner where he's selling used office equipment and semi-fresh fruit to explain it for us.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post today!!

FAG, isn't that something like Film Actors Guild?

Team America...FUCK YEAH!!!

broomie said...

CULT of FAG? Sign me up! WHo do I write the check to?

ant1 said...

CULT o'FAG

Anonymous said...

All the lawyers I ride with replaced their Titanium bikes with carbon/crabon bikes. One had to then replace his new Italian carbon/crabon bike 3 times in one season because of crashes and carbon/crabon failure.

If titanium is forever, carbon is kleenex. AHHH-CHOOO!

Anonymous said...

I agree with anon 1:31. BSNYC is the cyclocritical alter ego of Lucho Metales.

Luck E. 7 said...

Ant1,

You are correct. Two variables are inversely proportional (or varying inversely) if one of the variables is directly proportional with the multiplicative inverse of the other, or equivalently if their product is a constant. It follows that the variable y is inversely proportional to the variable x if there exists a non-zero constant k such that

y = {k \over x}.

The constant can be found by multiplying the original x variable and the original y variable.

Basically, the concept of inverse proportion means that as the absolute value or magnitude of one variable gets bigger, the absolute value or magnitude of another gets smaller, such that their product (the constant of proportionality) is always the same, or a balanced Tour.

For example, the dope taken for a Tour is inversely proportional to the gears needed for travel; the time needed to ride across France is (approximately) inversely proportional to the amount of dope per rider.

The graph of two dancing variables varying inversely on the Cartesian coordinate plane is a hyperbola. The product of the X and Y values of each point on the curve will equal the constant of proportionality (k). Since k can never equal zero, the graph will never cross either axis.

Mo' dope = less gearz.


A

Judi said...

BSNY - Bubblicious is a type of bubble gum. Doncha know?

With this economy crisis EVERYTHING is going to doube/triple and quadruple in price!

erik k said...

Bikesnob, its funny how sometimes looking at other makes you more deeply examine your self, looking at the $8G price tag of that, "Comooter" bike made me realize that I ride to work every day on a bike that would likely cost upwards of $6,000 (or 146.50 eu) to replace. Sure I bring it in the building, NEVER lock it outside, have cheep beach cruisers on hand for lunch errands, and have it the value coverd explicitly in an insurance policy. But whats it all mean? Well it means that I just realized that I may be a member of the more money than sense club, which was a shocking realization because I'm basically just above the level of being broke. But Who am I to judge myself anyways, it seems these sure are strange times we are living in.

bikesgonewild said...

...ouch...trying to follow the relative economic worth of all those trekalized bikes through the years, in comparison to the actual technological benefits they offer makes my head hurt...just like real world economics...

...but nancy pelosi did use the term "bubblicious" 3 times in her recent speech before congress, in regard to that $700 billion dollar bailout thingy...

...& i don't think she was referring back to her days as a lap dancer, either...

ant1 said...

Regarding the titanium is forever thing, I used to be a big believer, and still am to a point,
But...
I was riding my mtn bike at the GIHP (where they had the 96 olympic race, for those who care) for the millionth time, went over a little 10 inch drop, also for the millionth time, and my Ti bars went snap on me (titec, if anyone's interested, and I weigh 165 lbs). If I knew how to post a picture I would. Luckily I wasnt hurt and it happened right at the end of the trail, so I didn't have to walk far. In the end it's just a great bragging tale. So, either I'm a beast of a mountain biker, or titanium has its limits.

Critical Ass said...

FAG = Fairy Actuated Gearing

...a step up from STI

Anonymous said...

I always understood OCLV to be an acronym for "optimum cracking, low value", especially after seeing how many first gen OCLV shiny silver team Saturn bikes seemed to have came apart at the chainstays. Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

Bubblicious is pink
Salmon are pink
Coincidence?

Anonymous said...

Sloping top tubes and swooshy graphics don't come cheap.

Anonymous said...

A $9,000 bike? They have these bikes that cost less, can carry people, look very cool...


...and...

...do not need pedals for propulsion. Wow!

Georges Rouan said...

FACT...Love that. Genius.

kale said...

Obviously money isn't the problem here, (as the famous post on the BMC Track Machine explained) it's a lack of common sense.

If only our (sorry commie, et al.) represented officials had tried to pass legislation to bail out our dimwits with provisional common sense we might get somewhere. But, like Ignatius J. Reilly, we're now surrounded with self-concerned idiots and perverts who want nothing more than to fulfill their basest needs (not Kirk Hammett).
Now, spending 159 shekels on a pair of Sidi's only to get them dirty, now that's money well spent, because as we all know, good taste is a character trait of someone with common sense. Spending $10,000 on a bike isn't either, if you're Sheryl Crow's Ex. Conversely, spending your retirement funds on Crabon Trekz and Motobecane titanium bikes for no other reason than peacocking?.. But, that's the point. I'm nonplussed by this whole situation, mostly because I can't afford the steel bike I want because it's now expensive again. Damn this supply and demand!

MINGUStheMECHANIC said...

OCLV - Obviously Can't Like Vagina

bikesgonewild said...

...erik k...you just explained to yerself, that you are indeed, like the rest of us individually, a bike snob...cool...

...& lucky7...re: yer quote "the time needed to ride across France is (approximately) inversely proportional to the amount of dope per rider."...

...
...you'd have to be a dope to ride across france if you weren't being paid to do it on an expensive bike because, well, france is full of french people...

...why subject yerself to that ???...

...just parlez-in'...

Georges Rouan said...

Inflation: when put in the context of a sub 40 dollar barrel of oil in 2003, the price of bikes only doubling does not seem that bad.

bikesgonewild said...

...& despite my showing gall towards gaul, when it comes to frenchie aka bike boy, i can only say "not that there's anything wrong w/ that" regarding his being french & all...

Anonymous said...

Eric K: if you charged us each $0.02 to view your photoshopping skills, I would gladly pay. Soon, your financial distress would be erased. You would find yourself two levels above being broke.

Anonymous said...

Bicycle manufacturers haven't quite caught up the fact that there are no more home equity lines of credit to fuel the idiotic spending habits of bling-bike buyers. Then again, we're talking about people who make bikes for a living, so you can hardly expect any kind of brain trust.

Love,
Some random jerk

kale said...

wishiwasmerckx-

He'd probably just blow it on his mortgage like all us other stupid Americans.

Anonymous said...

what do you think about isotruss, bike snob?

Luck E. 7 said...

BGW,

......you'd have to be a dope to ride across france if you weren't being paid to do it on an expensive bike because, well, france is full of french people...

Apparently you have to be ON DOPE to be paid to ride across France as well.


A

bikesgonewild said...

...either way, lucky 7, just remember, s'il vous plait, "some of my best friends are french"...(obligatory response)...& could i talk like that, if they weren't ???...i think not !!!...

Strayhorn said...

Do Italians understand irony in the post-ironic 'Merkin way? I mean, Campy adopting "cult" is almost too good to be true.

N.B. - I ride Campy, but it's a Daytona 9. The trademark infringement issue thrills the lawyers in my ride group as they cruise along on their Serottas.

Matt said...

I saw that CoMooter at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland. Cool, I thought, all-titanium, Rohloff hub, just the ticket! I asked the guy in the booth how much it was and he wasn't sure but thought $3,200. Complete? Yeah. Sadly, he couldn't sell me one. It was just a concept bike. I thought the concept of a custom Ti frame with a $1,500 hub for $3K sounded pretty good, but I guess it isn't to be. Have to keep riding the Schwinn World Sport to work.

Arch Stanton said...

What is the minimum one should pay for a lock on a $900 bike? After running some equations, I came up with $400.

Or perhaps you never lock the thing, just to express your complete disassociation from such menial concerns?

Arch Stanton said...

err, meant $9k!

Anonymous said...

might as well JUMP: fixed-gear Vans

http://shop.vans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=569520&storeId=10001&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&vcategoryId=SEARCH

if link breaks just go to vans.com and search for 'fixed'. Ick.

Anonymous said...

Is no problem to buy expensive bike if you let me sponsor you in Kazakhway. Sign for me and you help me to sell heptaminol which is natural supplement and good for providing erections. I get 8% of sales, but you get 4% of sales when you sponsor your on Kazakhway seller of heptaminol, and so forth, and so forth, until we all have very much money.

Anonymous said...

Funny you should mention that cuz I can't help but wonder how all this dope affects other 'performance'.

bk jimmy said...

I was baffled about why that Madone is called "Red." Must be a clever cross-marketing ploy:

Madone fits. Period.

Naked Sarah Palin Pictures said...

Naked Sarah Palin will give a taxbreak to anyone who buys these bicycles with a hummer

http://nakedsarahpalinpictures.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Don't look at me, I'm irrelevant.

Sprocketboy said...

I think the Madone Red is a reference to the SRAM groupset since feminine hygiene products are generally not used in bike marketing. Or else it could just be like the Mercedes-Benz Black series of cars, which, of course, come in other colours for lawyers with Serottas. I still like the idea of the CoMoots as a commuter. It would be cool to ride a $9,000 bike to my $8,500 job. And, unlike the guy at Lehman Bros., this is not on an hourly basis.

Anonymous said...

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=MUriWHPnjeU
hey now.

Anonymous said...

Isotruss..LOL..There's ingenuity, three of their frames broke during the test ride day at Interbike.
I always wondered what would happen if the Teutels made bikes.

Anonymous said...

anon 3:45-she's blurry, and you can almost make out the penis.

Anonymous said...

Then again, we're talking about people who make bikes for a living, so you can hardly expect any kind of brain trust.
Love,
Some random jerk


Yes, not like those geniuses at Ford and GM exclusively making 12 mpg SUVs based on the projection that gas will be cheap forever. There's America's brain trust.

ant1 said...

Frilly - I heard there are rumors surrounding LA's under the covers performances. He claims the ladies have never complained, but then again, I'm pretty sure anna nicole smith never complained about her husband.

Anonymous said...

*chortle* Well, if I were ever lucky enough to find myself in just such a position, I don't believe I would complain either. Cuz after all there's always fofonov. Or one of the Garmin boys.

Anonymous said...

Snobby - you have to realize that the Moots boys have a skewed perspective. I live in Steamboat Springs, CO - home of Moots. First, unlike NYC, I can leave any of my bikes outside of my office unlocked and it will be there at the end of the day. Secondly, nothing brings out the posers quite like a ski town full of trust funders. If there is a expensive way to be hip, there are 100 people waiting in line in Steamboat. Riding a Moots here could mean two different things: 1 - you work at Moots. 2 - You're a poser with a trust fund that will pay any amount to have the latest gear.

ant1 said...

In defense of Moots, when I broke my Ti bars and needed new ones before a race, they were super helpful and had it send to me within days, all at a decent price. I even left their little dinosaur sticker on the bars I was so pleased with the company (I usally take all stickers off stuff, people can pay me if they want me to advertise).

Anonymous said...

Some earlier posters have been dissing carbon fiber, or at least saying their CF bikes have been fragile. I have a 12-year-old Aegis that's never had a problem, despite 35000 miles of heavy use. The difference seems to be that Aegis doesn't build the bike to please weight weenies. That, plus it's comfortable and performs well -- you might say it's laterally stiff, but vertically compliant.

ant1 said...

anon 5:10 - How many wrecks have you had on your carbon bike? Hit by any cars? That's where carbon sucks. It's a perfect material for race bikes, not so much for everyday use. I'm sure some dudes will still be riding CF bikes bought toady in 2025, but I'm pretty sure there will never be a retro carbon bike trend.

ant1 said...

toady = today. me = idiot.

Anonymous said...

ant1, I've had one serious wreck - front-wheel diversion accident, collarbone, my days as a beach model are over -- but thank God I've never been hit hard by a car (I live in the middle of nowhere, which doesn't confer immunity but which does reduce probabilities). I admit, the stuff is brittle and doesn't fail gracefully -- remember that TdF crash this year where the guy plowed into some road furniture and the bike exploded? That's why it's probably a good idea to overbuild a bit with the stuff rather than trying to make a, like, 200 gram frame. --
anon. 5:10

Daddo said...

heavy use is relative...

35k miles is 4 in daddo years

AnnaZed said...

Just so you guys know. The OCLV "red" refers to some Trek goobledegook about high (red), intermediate (black) or standard (white) modulus carbon and degree of complexity of the lay-up schedules of the carbon. It replaces their 110, 120 etc grades differentiation with the carbon.

...just sayin'...

Anonymous said...

i still insist on reading snob take the piss out of cat-cheetah bikes!
WORD!

Anonymous said...

Please Support

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=6594

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows if you want a real ride, you should always check out Walmarts trickle down technology. Some of the best bikes are hidding in the most obvious places.
I mean check out this sweet action:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5751048

If you can't ride that with some self-respect...you can SUCK LANCE'S BALL.

Anonymous said...

Yes, not like those geniuses at Ford and GM exclusively making 12 mpg SUVs based on the projection that gas will be cheap forever. There's America's brain trust.

Oh that's right, bikes good, cars bad. Sorry I forgot. Please excuse me. I'll retract what I previously said since only car manufacturers can be catastrophically stupid... In fact, bicycle companies such as Trek and Specialized are super duper smart for continuing to over inflate their high end road bike prices in the face of a rapidly contracting credit market, shrinking dollar and declining consumer spending... It just took a Canadian super genius like you to show me the shining path.

Love,
Some random jerk

Anonymous said...

All my bikes are laterally AND vertically compiant.

Anonymous said...

I am interested in what type of lock you would use on a $8750 titanium bike. My concern is if not carefully considered, the combination of dissimilar metals (a la the position in the periodic table of elements), and high concentrations of sweat could set up a galvanic corrosion which would render it to virtually scrap metal value or a mobile Everyready battery. Titanium does corrode but at rates dependant of specific environments. If this applies please check Perry’s, A Chemical Engineers Handbook, to make sure it does not dissolve into metal filings.

As for that Drek bike, only Letle would ride it (when allowed to ride or wanting to ride, or motivated to ride) and he is flung dollars to do so. And the price doubling factor is due to Letle having a full set and thus a higher Capital Recovery and Asset Proponent ( CRAP).
Frills get you mind above the wasteline as you have stated this is a bike blog

Anonymous said...

Hey, hey we were talking about cyclist doping and Garmin Chipotle.

The bike shop that services my steed is a Specialized dealer & I've seen the madness firsthand.

Anonymous said...

Specialized Dealer ?!?

Now Frill' you didn't get into all that "Body Geometry" *ahem* did you?

bluecolnago said...

wow.

**speechless**

ohminous_t said...

have you recently become unemployed? These posts of late must take hours, have you borrowed against the equity in your bicycle to hire some kind of research staff?

Mongo Pusher said...

Have you heard about the new composite frame from Craig Calfee and Billy Blanks?...It's called "Ti-Boo".

Anonymous said...

@ talking matchbox 3:44

but why are the kids crying?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shk8HawnCTs

Anonymous said...

FAG4 OCLV

Anonymous said...

GHOST BIKE MOOTS ON PARK AVENUE!!!

Anonymous said...

The lock you would use on a $9000 bike is a butterfly tied to dental floss. Then call me and tell me where you left it.

Nowadays with the proper treatment the life expectancy of people with "OCLV" is twenty years. With more lax regulations on Stem Cell research it could double to forty years by 2012.

Anonymous said...

stackup said "It's shocking people even showed up to the tour in '03. I mean, 9 speeds? How did Lance even finish, much less win?"

*ahem* i believe in '03 Lance was using either early production runs, or prototype dura ace 7800(10 speed) on his bike.

Monkey Ride said...

Yes indeed. This fellow can make you a commuter and you'll save $7500:
http://www.lyonsport.com/web/index.html

Anonymous said...

I fed OLCV into my automated de-acronymizer , and the answer came back as "Outrageous Cost Little Value"

Anonymous said...

A+ in Commenting 101.

Marcus said...

How do you pronounce "Madone"? Is it "Mad-won", as in "that guy riding the Trek is a mad one to have spent so much bread on a plastic bike"?

Or is is is Ma-doan (rhyming with lone), a form of Madonna, meaning Mother of God, an exclamation, as in "Madonne! that bike is expensive."?

Anonymous said...

It's not like you to miss something - but did you notice that buyers have no color choice with the Trek bikes? You'd think that for $10k I could get it custom painted, but apparently not.

ant1 said...

Hey Frilly - More euro pros heading your way:
http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/825176.html

Anonymous said...

I agree with the pricing being associated with perception vs. performance; that holds true with nearly everything. In my local bike shop in MKE recently, I was told that 09 bike prices, component prices as well as misc. (tires, tubes, etc) will be going up 20% due to material and transportation costs now being passed onto the consumer. So now, in addition to perception pricing increases, we can observe additional quantifiable cost increases as well...This explains why i paid nearly $50 for Specialized Armedilo tires...apparently these were $35 4months ago.

Terry said...

I like erik's post about sudden realization that he is a bike snob even though he can appreciate the irony in the more extreme examples. Like someone else said "we're all bike snobs". I find myself guilty too, as I ponder my first drop bar bike I start with "cross bike with 105" and after a big more clicking I am pondering something that actually looks sexy (I'm not against buying that is aesthetically exciting), but suddenly I'm thinking that Ultegra SL is going to give me something that 105 couldn't, and i want my wheels to say "ksyrium", and maybe since I'm going to do primarily road riding that I need a road bike... it's funny how it works. As for frame materials, I have had frame failures on titanium and steel hardtails, but not aluminum, ironically. And yes, carbon seems like an irreparable material, but how many of us are actually going to repair a crack in any bike frame, rather than replace the bike...I suspect most of us would only 'repair' a cheap commuter. I love bike snob's posts for the humour, but they do cause a bit of self examination, it's true. Cheers all

Anonymous said...

It's pronounced, "Mah...donnn", as in "Mah-donnn, look at the rack on her!"

Anonymous said...

SRJ,

Cars are not bad, "yank tanks" are bad. We should know, we used to make them up here, complete with 1950s technology at 2010 prices.

More bad news, Trek and specialized made more money than Chrysler, GM and Ford combined this year. Morons.

SRJ=Henry Paulson?

Anonymous said...

No, SRJ = your daddy.

So, my wayward son from Canukistan, trek and specialized made more than the big three this year? Um... still a few more months to go in the year, and the last time I checked, Specialized and Trek aren't publicly traded so you must be privvy to a vast storehouse of insider information from the future.

Care to source that spurious claim?

Love,
Your pops

Cycle Ninja said...

Snob, this post comes on the same day I learned my own Moots had shipped from the factory. It's a custom Vamoots, the road bike. It's way, way more bike than I'll ever justify...and I intend to enjoy the living hell out of it.

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Don't know if this is related but there's a FAG bearings plant in Joplin, MO so maybe they're working with Campy.

DJ Wicky Wick said...

You think 9 grand is steep for a Trek Madone 6.9 Pro--With today's unveiling of the new Trek Project One website, you can easily design your very own Madone 6.9 Pro that will set you back over $16000!

Anonymous said...

I'm just wondering if there a group of Italians shreding to pieces - the Pinarellos, De-Rosas, Colnagos which BTW- sell in excess of 9K. Most of us in this Blog would not spend even 2K on a new 6.9 Madone- if so priced. So why bitch and moan about something you don't want- Is it class envy? Social strife?

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