Things about Bike Equipment that annoy you. - Page 2

The extremely limited choices that I have because of my size - It's mostly all too big for me!

What annoys me the most is how a $40 piece of sporting equipment immediately becomes a $150 piece of sporting equipment the second you put "cycling" in the description of the item.

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"Don't think, feeeeeeeeeeeeel....
It is like a finger, pointing away
to the moon......
Don't concentrate on the finger,
or you'll miss all that Heavenly glory."

Bruce Lee
"Enter The Dragon"

Cleaning your helmet is easy. As suggested earlier, just take it into the shower with you every night.

The thing that annoys me is that I cannot find a cool looking pair of cycling/walking shoes out there. But maybe that's a problem with my personal preference.

Worrying about how much the poor worker in Taiwan gets paid for welding frames together, and how much profit the company makes when they sell them.

Is this carbon fibre seatpost really as strong as they say?

How touring bikes have died off.

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2004 Trek 1000
2005 Giant Elwood
ACE Folding Bicycle

One thing that annoys me... The fact that high end equipment is so much more expensive for no real reason.

If the manufacturers were to tool up for a single type of road/mountain gear (Dura-Ace as the Shimano example) they could easily make high end components affordable.

I would call a person a liar to their face if they were to claim that they couldn't make DA quality components for a retail cost of less than $200 for the whole group if they used the economies of scale. For this discussion, whole group means shifters, brakes (calipers and levers), BB, cranks, hubs, chain and cassettes...

The prices they charge are only in place due to marketing that has enabled them to sell a group for hundreds of dollars more because it weighs a few grams less.

Add to this, an extra vote for an earlier message which is also a marketing issue. I am annoyed by something that is labeled as cycling automatically going up in price.

while I agree that my 2001 XT rear derailleur looks weighs and functions exactly like a 2006 deore derailleur that costs 40 bucks I think the R&D and technology that goes into these things plays big in the pricing. There is also of course the exclusivity of having the new cool $hit...

The thing that annoys me the most is the super cheap stuff. I volunteer at Bicycle Works and we fix peoples bikes for free and sell used bikes. When something from Walmart comes in everything sucks. While I realize not everyone can afford a LeMond with Ultegra I wish more people would buy a 10 year old Trek with Shimano 600 components on it for the same price...

Basically the $100 department store bike that somehow shimano agreed to make worthless parts for and allow their logo to be plastered on is what annoys me about bike equipment. I want people to ride and a 50+ pound bike is not really a motivation. It really sucks because most shops that are worth a damn will charge $60 to tune the $100 bike put together by someone who's getting paid minimum wage to assemble (not tune) 20 bikes a day...

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LeMond Alpe-d' Huez (Fixed conversion)
Lemond Zurich
Gary Fisher Paragon

My Blog | MO DWI Defense | Voltron T-shirts | Lose Weight Get Fit

And what if you have a shaven head, like me?

The most annoying thing is the people whining about prices. There's always something cheaper to buy. If you think Dura Ace or Record is too expensive, quit crying, wipe up your tears, and buy something else. The whiners have no clue as to the fundamentals of economics. Instead of getting a clue, they instead put on a mantle of entitlement. Too bad. So sad.

Even my chapstick is carbon fiber.

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Dope,when training and talent just aren't enough.

hehe... This is actually pretty cool and carbon fiber...

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LeMond Alpe-d' Huez (Fixed conversion)
Lemond Zurich
Gary Fisher Paragon

My Blog | MO DWI Defense | Voltron T-shirts | Lose Weight Get Fit

For the discerning weight weenie who has everything:
http://www.montblanc.com/products/pr...teel.05819.php
It should at the very least put the price of bike parts in perspective.

Girls that ride faster than me...although the view, at times, can be spectacular!

The R&D is the only reason I gave credit for being able to sell every group as the highest available component level for $200 retail... and still make a profit. Otherwise I would go for $150 as a good selling price.

For argument's sake (arbitrary numbers to make the math easy):

I will say that $100,000,000 should be spent on R&D each year for Shimano to remain competitive, and that 2,000,000 groups of Shimano components (all levels) are sold per year.

If they are all DA level, then $50 of each group would need to be rolled into R&D. (assuming that the "lower" groups are using technology from current or former "higher" groups, so the cost there is virtually zero in the current marketing scheme)

If 5% are DA, then $1,000 of each group would need to be rolled into R&D.

In these purely fictional numbers, the DA users would be paying $950 more than they would pay if Shimano made a different marketing decisions. True, the current low end users may pay a few dollars more, but the cost of R&D would be shared by everyone...

I do not begrudge a company's right to make their money in whichever way they see fit. Also, the above can be changed to reflect the technology of Campagnolo, SRAM or any other group set manufacturer and be just as valid. I am not picking on Shimano.

Heck, if Shimano, or Campagnolo or SRAM, or ??? were to make the marketing decision "We make and sell one group, and it is Dura-Ace, or Record or ??? and we do it by creating large numbers of high quality components and take advantage of the high volume and unified research" I would buy the group tomorrow.

Sora or Tiagra is as much as I will ever need. I am more than happy with what all the manufacturers are producing as entry level components (other than perhaps the department store items)... but it annoys me that purely marketing decisions are keeping better components out of my hands.