Like Colnago’s new Tour de France bike? It’ll cost you £20,000

Your $5000 threshold applies to production bikes only.

In a world where inequality has been widening for years, their target market is the rich and aspirational. It's working.

Yes it's obscenely priced and only a few will be able to afford it.

But why get so wound up about that?
New bike releases come out like this all the time and elicit the same old boring outraged responses.

If you can't afford it (like the vast majority of us) then ignore it, move on and go buy a 105/Force build (which tbf, is more than enough bike for most people's actual abilities).
If you prefer riding around lanes at 20kph on 40 year old steel machines, that's fine too, just highlights further that this bike probably isn't for you either.

The tantrums about expensive bikes & having to regale everyone about loving old stuff has got to the point where it's even more banal & obnoxious than limited releases of high-end, obscenely over-priced bikes.

jagg wrote:

Yes it's obscenely priced and only a few will be able to afford it.

But why get so wound up about that?
New bike releases come out like this all the time and elicit the same old boring outraged responses.

If you can't afford it (like the vast majority of us) then ignore it, move on and go buy a 105/Force build (which tbf, is more than enough bike for most people's actual abilities).
If you prefer riding around lanes at 20kph on 40 year old steel machines, that's fine too, just highlights further that this bike probably isn't for you either.

The tantrums about expensive bikes & having to regale everyone about loving old stuff has got to the point where it's even more banal & obnoxious than limited releases of high-end, obscenely over-priced bikes.

And all the people went Amen

Well said.

jagg wrote:

Yes it's obscenely priced and only a few will be able to afford it.

But why get so wound up about that?
New bike releases come out like this all the time and elicit the same old boring outraged responses.

If you can't afford it (like the vast majority of us) then ignore it, move on and go buy a 105/Force build (which tbf, is more than enough bike for most people's actual abilities).
If you prefer riding around lanes at 20kph on 40 year old steel machines, that's fine too, just highlights further that this bike probably isn't for you either.

The tantrums about expensive bikes & having to regale everyone about loving old stuff has got to the point where it's even more banal & obnoxious than limited releases of high-end, obscenely over-priced bikes.

The only thing more dull than people complaining about over-priced bikes is people complaining about people complaining about over-priced bikes; and the only thing more boring than that is people complaining about them. 

Except that of course means that there are at least two things more dull than the original complaint.  I think the circuits are about to explode here.

Its pretty endemic in the bike media space. People love to tell you how they ride X bike and that is clearly the most anyone who isn't a pro needs and anyone who spends more is clearly a brainwashed idiot. The same people who no doubt spend silly money on other things in their life that many of us would think was batshit crazy. 

I wouldn't buy this bike if I did have £20k burning a hole in my very deep pockets. Who cares though. I'm sure some people will buy it and love it. Each to their own. Ride what you want and can afford and leave others to do the same. 

I couldn't agree more.

All this noise about Lab71s and SL8s and now a limited Colnago being so expensive is just hot air. Too many people don't seem to have enough real issues to get really bothered about.

Those bikes are irrelevant to me just as an Aston Martin or Porsche would be when I next need to buy a (cheap, old) car to replace my Fabia.

I see the same crap with people getting worked up about custom shop and vintage guitars yet players like Jeff Beck could walk into a shop, pick a standard Strat off the wall and then play a gig or record a track with it later that day. Or Gary Moore saying how the guys in Metallica didn't need thousands of pounds of gear to get a great tone, just something like a Les Paul and a Marshall (though I'm sure he used a couple of pedals too).

If people (even accountants) never bought expensive new bikes then collectors like you would never be able to buy expensive old bikes. Or was their history installed and held in with cotter pins at the point of manufacture?

Bigfoz wrote:

This is what happens when a great brand is bought by a hedgefund (sovereign wealth fund). It all goes horribly wrong.

I don't think any with sane mind will see an actual business opportunity and will say that "oh, I will not price unethically". If I was making bike frames in my back yard and I knew that there were people willing enough to pay £20,000 for 9 tubes and a fork, I would definitely charge them so.

Would these buyers be stupid? It depends, if they have the money and don't know what to do them, they are definitely not, if they think now that they are a bit tight but that things will get better, they probably are, if they buy them with loans and credit cards they definitely are.

The problem for me isn't that there are so expensive bicycles, the problem is that Europe importers are ok to import bicycles with components from Japan and Taiwan but not China where companies like Sensah and Ltwoo could seriously drop prices.

There are good reasons for not buying products from China.