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Be thankful for pedalling dentists, Tim Dawson
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Wherever you turn your head these days, there seem to be sensational
road bikes on offer. Lidl, the German discount retailer, is currently
tempting customers with an £800 bike fitted with Shimanos
nearly top-flight Ultegra groupset (crank, gears, wheel hubs, brakes and
chain). Halfords, normally serving the low-end market, has scored a goal
with its race-quality Chris Boardman range, costing £500-£3,300.
It has sold 10,000 of the cycles in the first year of sales.
Look at the very top of the road-bike market and something even more
interesting is afoot. Treks current top-of-the-range Madone 6.9
retails for £5,000. The equivalent Giant, the TCR Advanced SL Team,
is about £250 cheaper. Even the doughty Dawes Ultra Galaxy touring
bike has a best-you-can-buy model for £3,000. When you compare those
prices with what you might have paid a decade ago, it is evident there
has been a step change in top-end models. If prices had risen in line
with inflation (as defined by the retail prices index) the top of Giants
range should cost around £3,000, Treks should be £2,800
and the best Dawes Galaxy would be £970.
Noting the large rises in prices is no criticism of the bike makers,
for over the course of 10 years many aspects of bicycle design have changed
almost beyond recognition. Carbon fibre and titanium have reduced weight
and increased strength. The number and quality of gears have risen, and
bikes are mechanically smarter.
This rapid upward force on upper-end bicycle prices shows something
more profound than just improved engineering. Manufacturers have clearly
discovered a core of cyclists who have very deep pockets.
And it isnt just bikes. You can pay more than £400 for a
cycling jacket, and one company has recently started advertising handmade
leather shoes to fit bicycle cleats, at close to £150 a pair. Its
a far cry from the days when cyclists in threadbare club jerseys bragged
about how little they spent building up their all spare parts
machine.
The old guard dont like it, of course. Cycling is the new golf,
they complain, and not the inexpensive pastime of yore. Preening middle-aged
men compete to spend more than each other on celebrity-endorsed products,
and one particularly bitchy blogger decries Treks Madone as the
dentists bicycle.
For me, the more people cycling, the better, whatever they spend. For
every costly sportif, there are still a dozen similar Audax endurance
events in which you can participate for pennies. More important, if it
were not for the dentists who can afford thousands on top-flight bikes,
stores such as Lidl and Halfords would not be tempting the rest of us
with such amazing, high-tech bicycles for less than £1,000.
Tim Dawson
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