MEAT Engines 2023...

That's such a sweet "second career" look.

Posted by: nowthatsdoomage

That's such a sweet "second career" look.

Definitely. She's got an older Brodie Unabomber setup SS she's threatening to bring back to life as well. #26aintDEAD!

Posted by: Vikb

The original bar was flat ~680mm with a ~110mm stem.

Are these now available from your library under the retro category?

Back in my XC racing days my buddies (who all ran flat bars cut down to 580 mm) called me "the freerider" because I ran a 620 mm riser bar on my XC bike. A 680 mm flat bar sounds wild! ;-)

Posted by: [email protected]

Are these now available from your library under the retro category?

Back in my XC racing days my buddies (who all ran flat bars cut down to 580 mm) called me "the freerider" because I ran a 620 mm riser bar on my XC bike. A 680 mm flat bar sounds wild! ;-)

No I did not keep them, but I have a flat bar I will cut down to 620mm if you promise to ride it for a few months. ;-)

Her bars may even have been narrower than 680mm. I was just eyeballing it and my sense of scale is not strong at that width.

"Do You Need An EDC-Long Tool? (The UDH Experience)"

Don't have a UDH but I torqued both axles (clean and greased) to 9nm, pulled out my EDC lite tool and was able to loosen both with no problem . Then tightened them both with it and checked what I got with a torque wrench. The front was about 10nm and rear a bit more, most likely because it uses a finer thread pitch. BTW, I was wearing a pair of gloves which helped a lot.

I am glad I checked while in the shop, thank's Andrew for the heads up.

Posted by: mrbrett

Vik is really on to something here. I've mentioned out loud a number of times how jarring it was to see a bike price expressed in monthly payments - because the total scared people away. When that turns into a monthly leasing cost (which makes sense for people flipping high end ebikes every year or two) I think that's when we are going to enter a new and miserable realm of bike repair and dealer only software.

Due to some other stuff am dealing with and a reminder from my attorney in that realm. It is easy to transfer his comment to bikes.

Reality is eMTB and even meat engine bike prices have zero to do with “innovation”, changing technology, and “ground breaking”  idea to improve things. Nor does it have anything to do  with “growing the sport” or being inclusive or diverse like the companies they claimed.

End of the day all the bike companies that are marketing this stuff in truth work to ensure the share holders get their monthly cheque and if possible increase that.

The VanMoof bike bankruptcy is a cautionary tale about what happens when your service / insurance / integrated bike company goes belly-up. Customers ended up with bikes that basically couldn’t be operated and shops wouldn’t touch anything beyond patching a tire. VCs really got behind the “Tesla of Bike Companies” meme.

As for the MSRP spikes we saw through Covid, my opinion was that it was more about what the market would bear than any increase in actual company costs.

Posted by: Blofeld

As for the MSRP spikes we saw through Covid, my opinion was that it was more about what the market would bear than any increase in actual company costs.

There were definitely increased company costs. For example, container shipping costs quadrupled over the pandemic, for everyone. That took a long time to normalize again.

Posted by: Blofeld

The VanMoof bike bankruptcy is a cautionary tale about what happens when your service / insurance / integrated bike company goes belly-up. Customers ended up with bikes that basically couldn’t be operated and shops wouldn’t touch anything beyond patching a tire. VCs really got behind the “Tesla of Bike Companies” meme.

As for the MSRP spikes we saw through Covid, my opinion was that it was more about what the market would bear than any increase in actual company costs.

Virtually every business in the world faced increased costs and disrupted supply chains during COVID, why do you think that the bike industry didn’t?

Posted by: tashi

Posted by: Blofeld

As for the MSRP spikes we saw through Covid, my opinion was that it was more about what the market would bear than any increase in actual company costs.

Virtually every business in the world faced increased costs and disrupted supply chains during COVID, why do you think that the bike industry didn’t?

I didn’t say that companies didn’t see increased costs. I’m sure they did. My opinion is that before, during or after the supply chain crunch, the price of mountain bicycles (or other high margin toys) are set by what people are willing to pay for them. I was agreeing with Endurimil about the fact that these businesses aren’t in it for charity purposes, but didn’t quote him. 

Have any companies started dropping MSRPs on their 2024 product? I could be off base but it feels like we may start the new model year with a fire sale.

Yes, price was determined by what the market will bear, as it always is. 

Without seeing the balance sheets it’s all speculation on what was driving the price increases though. Many industries raised prices but that didn’t come close to cover the increased costs. 

I started seeing MSRP’s and sale prices falling last year around here.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

From an article in Bicycling last year on drivers killing cyclists and pedestrians with zero repercussions. For the record had seen it just before surgery last year and wasn’t in a good enough head space to read it till a month ago. And this page stood out.

And…

Posted by: Endurimil

From an article in Bicycling last year on drivers killing cyclists and pedestrians with zero repercussions. For the record had seen it just before surgery last year and wasn’t in a good enough head space to read it till a month ago. And this page stood out.

And…

Oof, some painful truth in there. It's pretty impressive how efficiently the car claimed ownership of the road, after it originally being a shared public space. (which bicycles used before cars were invented) 

I'm sure a gloomy prophesy could be written drawing parallels with ebikes and trails.