different rims

Sandy said:

Just wondering, no axe in hand : why do bicycle rims cost so much ?
Not to mention a set of wheels ; and the rubber ...

I just re-shod my car like this : four new 205/55x17 brand name tires
PLUS four new brand name alloy wheelsé All for the price of 783
Euros.

Yet two bicycle wheels, with good rubber, are not far behind. I
laughed when I saw Campy Protons being hyped as "training wheels",
coming in at 310?.

Aside from the economies of scale (which I would also like to know
about), what's the deal with these prices ?

I'd prefer factual economics and technology comparisons, but feel
free to digress, of course ...

My guess is they charge that much because they can.

Quoted message said:

Just wondering, no axe in hand : why do bicycle rims cost so much ?

Not to

Quoted message said:

mention a set of wheels ; and the rubber ...
I just re-shod my car like this : four new 205/55x17 brand name

tires PLUS

Quoted message said:

four new brand name alloy wheelsé All for the price of 783 Euros.
Yet two bicycle wheels, with good rubber, are not far behind. I

laughed

Quoted message said:

when I saw Campy Protons being hyped as "training wheels", coming in

at

Quoted message said:

310?.

You can make it as expensive as you want. Decent bicycle rims start at
30 euro each. A set of the cheapest Campagnolo wheels start at 170
euros (including tyres). You then have a decent set of bicycle wheels
for a quarter of the car wheels which seems ok to me.

"Sandy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Just wondering, no axe in hand : why do bicycle rims cost so much ?

Not to

Quoted message said:

mention a set of wheels ; and the rubber ...

I just re-shod my car like this : four new 205/55x17 brand name

tires PLUS

Quoted message said:

four new brand name alloy wheelsé All for the price of 783 Euros.

Yet two bicycle wheels, with good rubber, are not far behind. I

laughed

Quoted message said:

when I saw Campy Protons being hyped as "training wheels", coming in

at

Quoted message said:

310?.

Aside from the economies of scale (which I would also like to know

about),

Quoted message said:

what's the deal with these prices ?

I'd prefer factual economics and technology comparisons, but feel

free to

Quoted message said:

digress, of course ...
--
Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine FR

*******

La vie, c'est comme une bicyclette,
il faut avancer pour ne pas perdre l'équilibre.
-- Einstein, A.

Sandy asks-<< Just wondering, no axe in hand : why do bicycle rims cost so much
? Not to
mention a set of wheels ; and the rubber ... >><BR><BR>

I say-probably economy of scale, small numbers Rims are not easy to make but I
think are made more expensive by 'features' that are unneccesary, like welded
the seams and machining the sidewalls.

There are well made, not expensive rims out there-Veloccity and Torelli.

Peter Chisholm
Vecchio's Bicicletteria
1833 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535
http://www.vecchios.com
"Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

Sandy said:

Just wondering, no axe in hand : why do bicycle rims cost so much ? Not to
mention a set of wheels ; and the rubber ...

Because they can get away with it.

Quoted message said:

Aside from the economies of scale (which I would also like to know about),
what's the deal with these prices ?

I'd prefer factual economics and technology comparisons, but feel free to
digress, of course ...

You won't get much factual economics, since there is a severe shortage of
facts in this subject. There is no advantage to boutique wheels, yet
people spend outrageous sums for them. Go figure. Some of them are
demonstrably inferior to hand-built wheels (poorly engineered hubs,
too-low spoke counts, silly anodized rims), at only several times the
cost. What a bargain.

For me, a new pair of wheels costs about $40. More if I have to replace
the spokes due to a different size rim, and even more if I need hubs, but
these I usually get at swap meets. Most I ever spent on a wheel was
probably $100, most of that for the hub.

Tires are pretty much the same. People spend big for colored tread which
is inferior to black, tread patterns that do nothing, and kevlar
flat-protection that doesn't work, and yet ignore things like sidewall
stiffness that do matter.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
_`\(,_ | -- Paul Erdos
(_)/ (_) |