When I was young(20 years ago), names like Eddy Merckx, Cannondale, Bianchi, De Rosa etc, these bikes were the Ferarri, Lamborghini, 911 Porsche of the times. Now a days you get these bikes at the low end of the bicycle food chain selling for R3999.00 and its sad for me personally to see. I know the recession and bad economy must have had something to do with it where these guys had to come up with a stratergy or run the risk of closing down but its still sad. Now that carbon fibre is widely available it seems every Tom Dick and Harry is producing top end bikes. For instance when I went to go watch the TDF this year there are thousands of cyclists cycling up the mountains before the stage starts and there were so many bike manufacturers coming past, most of which I have not even heard of but they are all good looking bikes with carbon frames and Ultegra or Dura Ace components that you have to ask yourself "is there a bad carbon bike out there?" So going back to the years of 531,753 & SLX frames and Alluminium frames(older cyclists will know what I am talking about...kids dont look so confused) these were the days when only the best bikes were out there because hand built frames was a art and only a handfull of skilled frame builders were able to build them and so you were left to oogle and drool at these machines. Now ofcourse most bikes are made with a "Made in China" sticker at the bottom of your BB. So the question I have is exactly this: Why buy a Dogma worth R85,000.00 when you can buy a Fuji carbon for instance with the same components at R39,999.00? What is in a name anymore?
