Slowman wrote:
"But I don't think people should be blamed for thinking it's ugly not having seen it"
i don't blame anybody! i think everyone has the right both to have an opinion and to voice the opinion. i'm simply saying that when i go to a road show, and i fit somebody, and derive bike solutions for him or her, and we walk around the shop and talk about bikes, the folks i talk to are never reticent to share their opinions about how a bike strikes them. nobody is shy about saying, "i just don't like the way that bike looks."
in my experience, people online are more likely to comment negatively on something they don't like, even if they have no intention of buying it (and wouldn't be in the market even if they loved the looks of the product).
in my experience - when i'm talking to people in shops - it's, "wow, i love the orange on the new QR PR6," or, "I liked cervelo's P2 colorway last year more than this year," and i just don't find the opinions in person that i find online.
this is even more the case with the andean. everybody in person loves the andean.
but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with voicing a negative opinion online. keep 'em coming!
"Oh, and because it's really really expensive."
i only partway buy that argument. does
this bike offend you, because of its price? or
this one? or the "race build", which is $500 less than the similarly equipped P5X but would you rather have the HED wheels on the P5X or the profile design wheels?
the "problem" with the P5X is that cervelo did what a lot of bike companies do, which is to build a new halo bike in one build (or two), they're premium bikes, and they cost a lot of money
because they are premium builds.
pick your favorite superbike. put di2 dura ace on it throughout. put an enve aerobar on it. put enve wheels on it. get as close as you can on the rest of the spec. tell me what you find a bike like that costs.
I'm (sort of) playing devil's advocate here: Why should I spend $11000 on a P5X when I can get
this for the same money? I can get
two of these for less than the price of the top end P5X. The list price on my car (2013 Hyundai Accent) was about the same as the Dimond Marquise, brand new. I haggled 'em down to the P5X price range.
I'll be the first to admit that even as a person who can sell bikes, it's really hard to justify the cost of today's bikes. If the person interested in buying hasn't justified it themselves, I'm sure as hell not going to help matters. I suck as a salesperson. lol! I'm kind of a cheap ass - none of my bikes cost me more than $1800 new. I got kids to feed and to do things with, etc. I look at the price tag of a halo bike, and want to compare it to other things that can be done with that money, and I just can't ever see it happening. How did a motorcycle manufacturer produce an electric motorcycle - with battery technology that is in relatively early development - for the same price? What is so expensive about bicycle development that commands so much money? Is it an issue with the middle man or supply chain? Is it a matter of retail price creep due to rounding up to nice even numbers?
So, I guess what I'm saying, is from the average Joe's perspective, the cost of a bike is not necessarily offensive, but just not practical. A bike can be practical - their beauty is in their relative simplicity - but they're not practically priced.
Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador