Nothing wrong with any of the major brands really as far as quality goes. Marketing is of course a big thing for some of the brands but fit and components will be the most important thing for you to consider.

I'm a Giant rider and that's mostly because the local bike shop close to me when I got more serious about cycling/tri sold them and the shop was great and bikes served me well so I kept my business with them.

I'm sure someone can better explain why some brands charge more and others are able to cut prices here and there. There are several reasons. Any of the major companies make some quality and long lasting frames though. Buy from a good shop and you should be pretty well taken care of if something comes up with the bike.

Seems like every major brand breaks now and then.

I haven't ridden them all, but I've tried a few different generic asian frames and they do seem to hold their own against some high end name brands that I've ridden (Specialized, Cervelo, Argon 18).

...Now, I'm not going to claim that any generic asian frame is 'better' (that would be a VERY subjective opinion), or a good option for someone new to the sport. But they do represent an interesting prospect for some of us.

So when you buy a much more expensive bike with the same specs as a cheaper one, you are really just paying for the marketing and the stickers on the bike as opposed to noticeable differences.

I've seen a picture of the giant bicycle factory in Taiwan and Giant, Trek, Scott and Conolongo bikes are all made on the same production line.

Sometimes. Other times not.
Investment in R&D and improved construction techniques don't necessarily yield a massive difference in ride feel (as that is dominated by tyres), longevity or performance. So on the road there may not be a significant perceptible difference. Small improvements in performance can be very costly to pursue.

Some of the major manufacturers offer a phenomenal amount of tech in their mid level bikes. So while they still look expensive in comparison to a house brand it would be more accurate to look at the value those trickled down bikes represent in comparison to the halo models. For instance the Cervelo P2 offers nearly all of the performance of the P5 at a third of the price.

If you were looking at a brand that sponsored 3 worldtour teams there is an undeniable follow through to end user cost.

CycleNutNZ - Just heard your interview on Fitter Radio which was awesome. Changing my thoughts on future setup of bike this year because of it. Don't suppose you ever do fittings in Sydney??
ps Sorry to hijack the thread!

Fraid not. Trips to Oz tend to be Melbourne or Brisbane. Can do video review if you're stuck for local advice.
Thanks for the positive feedback.

A big part of the cost of big brands is the distribution method via dealers, marketing and R&D. Everyone in the chain takes a cut and that impacts on the final price. Your Specialised Concept Store doesn't pay for itself. In terms of quality, my Planet X Stealth is a good quality product, but is cheap because it cuts out the dealer and has little in the way of R&D costs as the frame does not appear to be very aero and may have been designed just for a 'look' (I'm guessing). However, it's still goes almost as fast (within .5kph) as my new Shiv at the same power. Yes, that is annoying, but at least I like the look of the new bike :-)

+1

For me the sweet point would be a brand like Canyon (not sure if they're available in the US yet) who still invest in R&D and design their own bikes, but distribute directly rather than through shops. Love my LBS and will always try to use them for parts (they also do a price-matching scheme so if I walk in and prove that Wiggle is offering such and such a tire at X price, they'll match it, which is simply awesome), but when I look at what they must be paying for staff, premises, stock, etc I do wonder how much margin they must have to make on bikes just to survive.

There are only a small handful of factories that mass produce carbon frames. Giant being the biggest, and from what I've heard, a few more in Taiwan and China. So yes, That factory in China that is producing Cervelo frames is likely also pumping out brand 'x' bikes as well.

The price delta between frames is likely more than just stickers;). There are a more than a few people who back the creation / design / distribution of that brand. There are a lot of mouths to feed between the process of designing a frame and getting it to your door. However, there are some companies (Stevens bikes comes to mind), that simply do what you mentioned; they take a generic frame, slap their sticker on it, and price it like it was their prized possession;).

The Stevens Super Trofeo TT is a great example of the B.S. marketing that some companies do:

"Countless hours in the windtunnel to create these aero-optimized tube shapes. Countless hours of fiddling to create the perfectly intgrated cockpit. Countless hours of engineers' know-how to hide those Tektro brakes behind the fork and make them invisible to the wind. We did our work - now it's your turn"

Countless hours in the wind tunnel? - I call BS on that.
Countless hours creating the cockpit? - BS. If they did, they sure didn't come up with a great result
Hiding brakes - ...you get the idea
"we did our work". - What? they re-badged a generic frame that can be bought from several asian resellers! They didn't do anything.


Pure marketing B.S. ...For all of this, they charge about double what you 'could' be paying through other resellers.