[EddyBerckx]

I’ve been looking over the last few months at getting an aero bike. Pretty much at the start and now I’m set on an Orro Venturi but still, I’ve been looking at others..

A bottom of the range Cannondale Systemsix has gone from £3500 to £4500

A bottom of the range Trek Madone has gone from £3900 to £4600 (actually I’m sure it was aRound £3500 a year or so ago)

Canyon Aeroroad from £2500 to £3000 (that’s the old rim brake model, the new model starts at £3700)

And now the bottom of the range Cervelo S3 has just jumped from £3800 to £4400

All in the space of around 6 months

Didn’t even bother looking at Specialized as they are way out of range (all the above were too but I was dreaming..) Plenty more brands have done the same. Decent mid level bikes are now super bike prices.

Lower end bikes haven’t escaped of course. 
 

Am I just getting old? People used to moan about this when I first started cycling in 2012, the latest prices are crazy. Someone must be buying these I assume

Topic

[Captain Badger]

Gossa wrote:

……

But Brexit has created a 14% duty rate on bikes coming in from the EU, how can you not factor that into price rises?

Sunlit uplands dear boy, sunlit uplands…..

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that contribution
Thanks for that contribution and your stingingly intellectual rebuke.

[Gossa]

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

Because the vast majority of bikes don’t come from the EU and those bikes that definitely don’t have also seen price rises.

You’d be surprised, Specialized, Trek, Scott, Cannondale, Giant, a lot of these are assembled or warehoused in the EU.

Price rises are not brands or distributors (or retailers) jacking prices up due to demand. I can imagine factory prices are rising due to raw materials but also PPE and covid compliant working which has never been ‘a thing’ in bicycle manafacturing (or anywhere i guess). The shipping and duties seem to be the short term issues, who knows, prices in the summer might come down as brands resource outside of the EU and the container shipping returns to some sort of normaility? Fingers crossed.

[Rich_cb]

Because the vast majority of
Because the vast majority of bikes don’t come from the EU and those bikes that definitely don’t have also seen price rises.

[the little onion]

I wasn’t blaming brexit

I wasn’t blaming brexit entirely for the logistics issue – clearly Covid has had a massive, probably bigger, impact, particularly on parts from the far east. But Brexit has sent shipping rates through the roof on trade between GB, NI and the EU.

On exchange rates, bear in mind that the bigger importers will have hedged and ordered in advance where possible, so the increases we see today may be the legacy of changes in exchange rates a year ago.

[Gossa]

Simon E wrote:

I don’t think we can blame Brexit

[/quote]

But Brexit has created a 14% duty rate on bikes coming in from the EU, how can you not factor that into price rises?

[Rome73]

My word. Brexthick comments

My word. Brexthick comments are even on this website. 

[Joe Totale]

The prices have gone so silly
The prices have gone so silly that I’m not planning to buy any more bikes and am happy to stick with what I’ve got! At least Mrs Totale is happy that I’m not thinking about N+1 right now.

Even the second hand market is mad. I bought a Kona Paddywagon for £250 s/h with a bunch of nice parts on it 3 years ago. I replaced those parts with cheaper ones and abused it as my everyday commuter/run around. I sold it recently on another forum very quickly for £250!

[cyclefaster]

It seems to be the same in
It seems to be the same in the second hand market as well. I like to look at the UK road marketplace on eBay to see what’s selling and prices on there are sky high for some quite average kit.

If I was in the market for a bike right now. An Orro Venturi would be to of my list.

[Simon E]

the little onion wrote:

Brexit creating supply chain problems and exchange rate issues. Disrupted logistics chains lowers supply. Rising demand for bikes during lockdown. Add that all together, you get increased prices.

I don’t think we can blame Brexit (except maybe Canyon’s latest prices for the direct sales model). Most of these price hikes already affected 2020 models, I’ve seen 10% is roughly across most models and not only in the UK. Covid has impacted massively on production of frames and components but also further down the line and coincided with a spike in demand.

A 105 disc-braked aluminium bike like the Giant Contend SL 1 discussed by a beginner on the forum yesterday costs £1,600 while the Trek Domane AL 5 Disc, a direct competitor, is £1,775. These are well-specced bikes but that is a lot of money for a bog-standard road bike!

Rim-braked models are still cheaper at the moment but even they have gone up. A bike that was £700 3 years ago is now £999.

[Gossa]

Yep costs to ship a bike are

Yep costs to ship a bike are the same(ish) but you normally insure the more expensive ones due to the higher value so there are some variances. However if you’re banking on X cost per bike and its 5 or 10 times X then that does impact all the way up the supply chain, those costs are real but hopefully will come back down, maybe after Chinese New Year later this month.

The price increases you’re seeing currently are due to this perfect storm of increased cost out of the factory, additional shipping and tariffs if they come via EU. I dont see any brand jacking up prices due to the increased demand, its still a fiercely competitive market.

Who knows, prices may come down again when some of these issues change? Brands that buy from the EU will now resource from Asia if they can, shipping costs will stabilize but the cost of raw materials might settle down. This could be a blip.  

[EddyBerckx]

Didn’t know that about the

Didn’t know that about the spec change on the cannondale, though they did add £500 for the exact same model overnight as have the other brands I mentioned (or more).

 

yhe freight one is a difficult one, surely it’s not dependant on the bikes orignal price though, it costs the same to ship a £500 bike as a 5k one.

 

im not in with all the conspiracy theories about everyone trying to rip us off all the time btw, I’ve just been left open mouthed at the overnight price rises on same spec bikes. Will be interesting to see what happens when the boom and pandemic calms down a bit

[Gossa]

You have to factor in that

You have to factor in that bike spec’s can change quite a lot year on year and therefore affect price. For example the Cannondale SystemSix Ultegra went from having a semi shallow alloy Fulcrum wheel to a full carbon Vision wheelset so we’re not comparing apples with apples as thats a £1000 upgrade at least. However, bike prices have recently increased substantially due to the numerous reasons.

Firstly new duties, non e-bikes bikes coming in from Europe are attracting a 14% duty.

Secondly bicycle and bicycle component manufacturing factory prices have risen due to the higher cost of raw materials due to global demand of more ‘stuff’ (not just bike stuff) we want to buy, mostly originating in Asia.

Lastly freight issues. There are far less empty containers in Asia to ship ‘stuff’ around the world. This means that container prices have increased 5-10 times the usual cost and have been seen recently selling at auction for 16-20k euros (normally price is between 2-3K) so these charges which have been absorbed by brands over the last few months are now being shared across the supply chain. Before this, a brand bringing in a 40ft container of ‘normal’ bikes (£500-£800) would have been losing money on those bikes, at a time when there is unprecedented demand.

In this time, dealer margins have not risen, however one might argue that through the last year a lot of them have been able to sell bikes and gear at little or no discount (instead of going out of business which was the trend), and manufacturer/distributor margins have been impacted through absorbing the price and freight increases. 

I know a lot of normal cycling punters feel they always end up footing the bill but like all relationships…this one is complicated!

 

[Anonymous]

Fact check:
Fact check:

– See https://www.google.com/search?q=gbp+to+usd&oq=gbp sterling vs USD in 2020. Exchange rate factors caused by Brexit have been largely deflationary in 2020 and Sterling has been very stable
– Covid (not Brexit) has caused global shipping fees to rise fivefold and disrupted labour supply across the various supply chains. See https://www.brujulabike.com/cannondale-raises-price-bikes-2021/ for example
– the claim about demand-side factors is correct, bike sales increased 63% during lockdown in the UK creating massive inflationary pressure when combined with supply issues
– if Ursula con der Leyen was in charge of procuring bikes she’d try to buy some after they’d all sold out then threaten to create a hard border in Northern Ireland, with the French pretending the bike didn’t work for anyone over the age of 65…!

[the little onion]

Brexit creating supply chain

Brexit creating supply chain problems and exchange rate issues. Disrupted logistics chains lowers supply. Rising demand for bikes during lockdown. Add that all together, you get increased prices.

[Author]

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