Comment on What makes a bicycle so expensive?
litchralee@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Although this YouTube video is about motorbikes and mountain bikes, much of the context is applicable to bicycles at large. And is also within the ballpark of an automobile down payment.
litchralee@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Borrowing some of the points from that video, a high-end bicycle – let’s say a road bike – is very close to what could actually be used in competitive road cycling, with all the technological and material sciences advances included. Whereas a standard car like a Toyota Corolla would need substantial further investment to bring it to competition grade (eg rallying). And a high-end, track-inspires road-legal car would be exceeding $100,000 easily.
Certainly, in the average quality range, the price of your average road bike and your average automobile will be a chasm away. But I figured your question is focusing on the high end of bicycles.
keckbug@lemmy.world 11 months ago
In fact, in a few certain situations you can actually purchase higher-end hardware than the pros use. UCI has restrictions on shape and weight that need not apply to non sanctioned riders, and there are improvements that are available in both aero and weight. Notably, Triathlon specific bikes are often markedly faster than UCI compliant bikes due to the aggressive aerodynamic optimization.