this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Fuck Cars
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I'm more wondering why someone would spend that much on a damn bike. I bought my car for 15k of course that was in 2010 but I'm still driving it to this day. Toyota Corolla before anyone asks.
Edit: I just realized this was posted under fuck cars and now I feel like a dick comparing it to the price of my car. It wasn't intentional but still holy shit that's still a stupid amount of money to spend on a bike. Like how can you even justify that price? It has to be a completely insane amount of markup.
He admits he has a car, get him fellas!
Entry level racing bikes are about $3-5k these days. That's a top end Pinarello with custom paint. It might be $15k, but it's probably closer to $10-$12k with those wheels.
I'm the guy who puts my $8k mountain bike on the back of my 20 year old shitbox Honda when I drive to the trails
Not a biker, but it makes complete sense to me. Car = transport, bike = great pleasure.
It's one of "the rules" that bikes on top of your car should cost more than the car itself.
and also, 15k would be like the cost of a drivers license there.
I don't know the actual numbers, but it is wicked costly to even get the privilege to drive there, let alone get a car.
Singapore has some of the best mass transit in the world. It rivals Japan and Spain in quality. And in a city as dense as it is, it kinda has to be or the metro area simply couldn't function. If everyone in Singapore needed to own a car to get around, the city would be in permanent gridlock 24/7.
I think most people forget when you get these bikes it's like buying an f1 car in motorsports. That 15k bike is probably nearly identical to what the pros are running, like maybe they use a different hand grip or seat but for the most part that's a completely custom chasis, redesigned from the previous year and up to spec to compete in a professional capacity right off the bat.
Almost certainly competition / training. A bike like this is your exercise, leisure, hobby, your source of competitive spirit, your hobby, and of course its your baby who you love and keep tuned up. A 15k car is a great value, a workhorse. Is it your baby? Maybe it is if you're still driving it.
There's nothing can legit do to a bike to make it be worth 15. Grand except put a motor on it
These bikes are at the same level as what is being used at professional levels. You can always get a cheaper bike if that's not what you are into, but it's like looking at an f1 car and saying it's overkill for the road, well no shit, it's made for the extreme end of the sport. Calling these bikes crazy is like conflating the price of an f1 car to the price of a civic.
Definitely not my baby. Just a cheap reliable source or transportation in a city that you have to own a car to get anywhere. Paints chipping off and it has rust but still gets me to work everyday so I don't care. I'm a tightwad so spending like this will never make any since to me. I'm just not a person that wants many material things.
Probably a status symbol to some extent. And some people are so rich they will spend a lot more for very slight, incremental improvements. For them, the difference between $5k and $15k might be more like $5 and $15 for an average person.
Because they can afford it and want to have top end carbon, dura-ace, etc.
Do you need it ? No! Does it feel good to ride? Hell yeah!
I don't think its an unfair comparison. There's simply nothing that you can do to a bicycle that will make it more complex or difficult to manufacture than the most bare bones automobile. So it is a bit crazy that folks can charge $15k for a fancy frame and tire set, when an extra ton of precision engineered material costs the same.
At some level, it just feels like gouging. A good bicycle should be the sort of thing anyone can afford, not a luxury good reserved for wealthy hobbyists.
I once asked a friend of mine why he spends Β£90 on fancy branded T-shirts and a Β£1500 watch.
He said it was so he didn't have to walk down the street and see somebody else wearing one.
So it's mostly that. It's not $15k of bike. It's $15k of wanting to have something nice other bike people will see and think "that's a nice bike".
Someone who spends 10k+ on a bike is probably fit as fuck, so biking 10s of miles to get somewhere is nothing, plus you can take it on the train. New bottom bracket every couple years, maybe 200 in tyres, maybe 100 in brake parts. Cost of getting around, it only takes a few years to pay for itself even at those prices when you add on the actual costs of running a car, saying all this as someone who drives. If you don't need to move a bunch of stuff or other people around, in terms of transport cost even an expensive bike is cheap of you use it.