Yeah, exactly, people on this forum are enthusiasts. Some want to keep old bikes going, and some will be happy spending Ā£500 on some rare tyres to complete their build, but I would suggest that in the middle are many people who are all still willing to pay too much for some old stuff so they can build up a bike, regardless of whether it's Ā£500 for some tyres (which is an edge case no matter how you look at it). In contrast averages are based on everyone, including those who really don't care about bikes and to whom they are simply a method of getting from A to B. Conversations on here around cars (with a few exceptions) have led me to suspect that most people see cars as 'from A to B' at best and nothing more, so comparing high end new bikes to average used cars isn't exactly comparing apples to apples, even if the value for money element of the argument is still very valid. A boggo family car is mass produced, doesn't have performance, and if you try to drive it hard everywhere you'll kill the thing pretty quickly. It's the same with MX bikes that people always use as a comparison. Yes, you can get one for less than a high end bike but that high end bike is race spec, basically, the MX bike won't be. People say 'oh my car tyres are cheaper than that bike tyre', and while I agree that bike tyres are ridiculous in cost these days, the rear tyres on my car are cĀ£200 each discounted, whereas a discounted Conti DH tyre is about Ā£60. If we start talking about race tyres for cars you're then into way more than that.
Going to the point about standards; 100%. Then again most cars are almost entirely proprietary with only consumables like tyres, batteries and bulbs being a true standard across the gamut. Move away from that and while some family parts are transferrable, they're the exception rather than the rule. At least bikes have some form of standards, even if many of them are niche, poorly implemented, patented, or utilised by a single manufacturer. Where the car industry differs though is that spares are usually easily available until cars are well over 20 years old unless very low volume. You try getting spares off the shelf for a bike made even ten years ago...
