Bike boom - is it over?

[bleedToWin]

23 minutes ago, dave303e said:

ok I'll bite... apples to apples it is then.

Husky TE300i, is a full on race bike, R161k, S-works Epic is R240k.

Seem fair?

Can you find a cheaper full on racing bicycle?
Is this the most expensive motorbike in it's class?
 

[Jewbacca]

Guy, using extremes as examples is so internet forum 2020... Medians and general acceptance that there are outliers is way more 2022.

[Shebeen]

since we're comparing motorbikes with bicycles,

there's a lot of supercheap scooters doing deliveries currently. everything from takealots, to ubereats and inbetween.

mostly these things:

 

 

 

I'm actually seeing quite a lot of these around now too. i wonder how the cost comparisons work, but it's legit pedal powered seeing the guys riding them.

 

 

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/11/02/pathway-cycles-is-scaling-up-south-africas-first-e-bike-focused-delivery-business/

[Mongoose!]

1 hour ago, kosmonooit said:

Actually the pedal bike I use around here is a 22 year old 26" Cannondale F500 Fatty, with 1st gen Hope Disc brakes, and a few broken spokes.

 

jys tevrede met min

[dave303e]

24 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

Can you find a cheaper full on racing bicycle?
Is this the most expensive motorbike in it's class?
 

yes and pretty much yes within 5-10k(KTM Husqvarna and Gas Gas are basically 1 company and the same bike)

 

You can also get a 2022 KX250f for under R141k, that engine revs to over 13000rpm. 

 

[Hairy]

23 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

I'm actually seeing quite a lot of these around now too. i wonder how the cost comparisons work, but it's legit pedal powered seeing the guys riding them.

 

 

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/11/02/pathway-cycles-is-scaling-up-south-africas-first-e-bike-focused-delivery-business/

A good few of those e-bike delivery guys in our area, and they can move. Spoke to one of them and he recons the bicycles are great for doing deliveries.

[Showtime]

We can really acknowledge both points:

1. People don't need the most expensive bicycles

2. The scale of diminishing returns is very steep for bicycles

[dave303e]

24 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

since we're comparing motorbikes with bicycles,

there's a lot of supercheap scooters doing deliveries currently. everything from takealots, to ubereats and inbetween.

mostly these things:

 

 

 

I'm actually seeing quite a lot of these around now too. i wonder how the cost comparisons work, but it's legit pedal powered seeing the guys riding them.

 

 

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/11/02/pathway-cycles-is-scaling-up-south-africas-first-e-bike-focused-delivery-business/

these are actually really cool, and if you had it set up well and charging off solar it would be even cooler. 

[PhilipV]

2 hours ago, bleedToWin said:

What a boring distopia we live in... 🙄

Sure we can't do apples with apples here, but let's at least make sure the fruit that we compare are of the same size.

FFS people, we don't need to have the best, or near best, but if we decide to get the good stuff then it costs a lot of money. It's life.

/rant
 

 

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

SA is very much a class driven society. With land areas being segregated and stigmatised, there is a constant look to move 'up' the food chain.

 

It's a very 'I want the shinies so I must have the shinies and because I have usually been able to get what I have wanted in my life, I am entitled to the shinies!'

The pinch is hitting people who have floated above it for a long long time. Those living with less have systematically been living with less and less for a while. It is just starting to effect those who haven't really had to tighten their belts before.

 

Gentleman please. 

Logic not allowed. 

 

[Headshot]

1 hour ago, bleedToWin said:

Can you find a cheaper full on racing bicycle?
Is this the most expensive motorbike in it's class?
 

That is a top of range 300cc 50kw 2 stroke fuel injected enduro bike - it even has lights. So yes its top of the range and it will help you go faster in the discipline for which it is intended to  a far greater extent than a silly Swerx will on the Epic. 

[kosmonooit]

2 hours ago, Hairy said:

Pics of that F500 or it never happened .... no pics of the broken spokes please, no reason to bring people to tears

There is a pic  of that "Made in USA" black beaut here somewhere, I'll have to dig deep.... yeah it needs some love right now.

No offense, but there does seem to be a class of people, typically in the financial industry,, who earn enormous sums of money but who have little idea of material / technical value, perhaps that's the afore mentioned 5% of the bike market. Where R160k is pocket change,

I've seen this with some sites in the type of work I am doing now (domestic PV systems/Inverters/Energy harvesting/backup etc)  where hoooog amounts of money had been spent on total overkill and the clients quite frankly have not the simplest clue as to what they got.

 

 

 

[Shebeen]

34 minutes ago, kosmonooit said:

 

No offense, but there does seem to be a class of people, typically in the financial industry,, who earn enormous sums of money but who have little idea of material / technical value, perhaps that's the afore mentioned 5% of the bike market. Where R160k is pocket change,

 

 

The upside here is that they do keep the LBS lights on.

They are an input for the 2nd hand market, buying the latest model each year

They took over the Epic and made it financially viable.

They might even be sponsoring events too

 

but they still remain mainly a wunch of bankers.

[LazyTrailRider]

56 minutes ago, kosmonooit said:

No offense, but there does seem to be a class of people, typically in the financial industry,, who earn enormous sums of money but who have little idea of material / technical value.

Wealth is relative.

Someone living in a shack likely thinks the same of you in your expensive house and a bicycle which you don't actually need for transport but use for something as frivolous as sport. They would probably be justified in thinking we have no clue about the material value of the things we take as granted.

[The Ouzo]

8 minutes ago, LazyTrailRider said:

Wealth is relative.

Someone living in a shack likely thinks the same of you in your expensive house and a bicycle which you don't actually need for transport but use for something as frivolous as sport. They would probably be justified in thinking we have no clue about the material value of the things we take as granted.

Wealth is indeed relative. You have mentioned an extreme example, but I just look at family around me and how they view spending a few thousand zar on something vs how I view it. We are on opposite ends of the middle class and our views are different. 

[Steady Spin]

Does spending more on cycling kit than clothes for the office count? 

I think in a lot of cases priorities are often mistaken for frivolous spending. 
For example I ride a R120k bike and driving a R100k car vs my brother that rides a R10k bike and drives a R600k car. 

My priorities are different. Doesn't mean I'm wealthy.  

[LazyTrailRider]

1 minute ago, Steady Spin said:

My priorities are different. Doesn't mean I'm wealthy.  

Definitely.

Now take that priority variance and add a wealth variance on top of it, and we have a pretty logical explanation of why some segments of the bike industry are booming and others are not.