SS bikes, what are we paying for ?

[velomaniac]

Today I was in Biketrax bike shop in Edinburgh which proudly boasts it has the biggest collection of Single Speed bikes in the capital. Bikes were from Charge, Trek, Genesis, Scott, Pashley etc and not one was much below £500.

I know that ss is niche and thus production volumes are not as high but some of these bikes don't even come with a freewheel :shock:

Surely its possible to make a good lightweight ss roadbike cheaply,

I hope the manufacturers make a loss for such pretentious nonsense when you compare what you can get in the mtb geared world. Please note I love ss but I'd rather bodge up my own than pay those stupid prices :roll:

 

[orange71]

triumph of marketing over substance

 

[perry]

You could say there's a few hundred in the frame and forks , then there's the wheels and finally parts but the frame and forks aren't exactly amazing , the wheels generic and never anything you would go out of your way to have built and the parts are just a small selection of whats comes from the manufacturers parts bin .

I want to like the boardman singlespeed but can't see where the money is . For £500 I can spec each part I want individually within reason .

I guess they are there for people who want the look but without the substance and are willing to just pay for the chance to say they were doing it while it's still popular .

 

[FluffyChicken]

You're paying for the wife not to moan constantly about how to use the gears as they're just to complicated for them. So she will choose one of these.

 

[kaiser]

Would you say they were outlandishly priced? This is the type of conversation I have with non cyclists

 

[REKIBorter]

If you buy an 'Off the shelf' SS you are buying into coolness. Cool costs money. To build a SS from scratch is an act that imbibes the builder and bike with an aura of coolness. Therefore, SS are cool but if you build your own it is so much cooler

 

[REKIBorter]

:?:

 

[mikee]

you're right velo

build a s/s in your own shed sell the crap you remove and be quids in
not rocket science is it

 

[stewlewis]

Fashion

 

[Kestonian]

Or just buy a two year old one that hasn't been used and the owner gets fed up with tripping over it in the hallway.