Okay deep breath.. DI2 cost... $4843

Triathlon Forum
1

I posted a couple days ago about the absolutely ridiculous cost of the new Zipp Vuma Chrono crank, currently $1300, not including the $330 ceramic BB. I simply refuse to believe that today’s economy will support this product at this price. Once these hit Bonktown next year, I may consider buying them.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2226566;search_string=1300;#2226566

Well, the folks at Shimano just one-upped Zipp with the pricing of the new DI2, aka electronic Dura-Ace.

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=WHATS_NEW&WHATS_NEW.ID=263

CompetitiveCyclist breaks down the pricing pretty well. I think they understand all too well this priced out of the reach of even their customers. They specialize in the very upper end of bike sales.

STI Levers, $900.

Rear derailleur with a rear wire kit and all battery-related costs, $1,408.

Front derailleur and front wire kit, $980. This totals $3,288.

The add the costs of the needed non-Di2 components, $1,555.
Bottom line group cost of $4,843.
Directly quoting CC.com

“There’s a device called the “SM-EC79 System Checker/Programmer” that sounds awfully important. Our guess is that you probably want to have one of these as well. If Di2 is the iPod, our guess is that this item is iTunes. We’re not sure if it’s just hardware or if it’s hardware + software. We’ll know soon, but as of this writing we just don’t know. What we do know is that it costs $357. So save your pennies for that too.”
This does not even include the pricing of the time trial pods and brake levers with shift buttons, the items that would apply to us on Slowtwitch.
If this sounds like sour grapes on my part, just because I can’t afford the latest and greatest stuff, it certainly is not. I have plenty of disposable income even in today’s economy, but there is a point that even I, (and especially to my wife) cannot justify a purchase such as DI2 or some uber-expensive crank.
The thing about DI2 is that I truly believe this is a revolutionary product, one that can actually make a huge performance improvement. It could realistically take chunks of time off the bike portion of any triathlon, almost certainly being the difference between a podium slot or maybe even beating your buddy out on the course that you are normally pretty even with. The shifters are completely aerodynamic because they never move. The brake levers are what I think are the game changers, being able to shift to the perfect gear while going into a tight turn or getting ready to climb, all without needing to play twister with your hands trying to shift and brake simultaneously.
Maybe I am wrong, I know many think Zipp will be okay selling a crank that cost over $1600 with BB, I am sure some will think Shimano will have no trouble selling this product. I am also sure that Cervelo will sell all the P4’s they can make, even though it appears from the data Cervelo has shown that a P3/P2 may be faster at 15 degrees of Yaw and greater (where my slow ass probably spends most of his time).
Maybe I watch too much news about how the economy is in shambles (how does AIG lose $62 billion in a quarter, aren’t these people supposed to be the smartest people in the world with money?). But these prices are simply completely out of whack with reality. If I am ranting and this should be in the Lavender Room, I apologize.

Just based on what I have seen from bike retailers going under, and these skyrocketing bike prices I think the bike biz is in for a very rude wakeup. If anybody pays attention to Bonktown, just look at what they have been selling lately, very, very high end, nice stuff. Yesterday they were selling Pinarello Dogma (magnesium) framesets for around $2200, I think retail is clost to $5000. Somebody had to unload those for pennies on the dollar. Just one example of many.
Shimano has come up with an amazing product, but I think they are going to move very little product at the prices they are asking.

I know it isn’t worth much, but those are my .02 cents.

2

absolutely stupid. If anybody other than a sponsored athlete gets this, I think they are foolish. Obviously there will be people who can afford this, but why waste your money on something like this-it most likely will not effect your speed, just your “cool” factor.

I just can’t believe some of the stuff they are coming out with. I can’t imagine that all of their man hours are even going to be worth it, maybe that is why the cost is so high

3

The brake levers are what I think are the game changers, being able to shift to the perfect gear while going into a tight turn or getting ready to climb, all without needing to play twister with your hands trying to shift and brake simultaneously.
actually, there is a very simple way to solve this problem and it doesn’t require electronic dura ace.

4

Do not give up hope. Keep working hard, try to be creative, and one day you may join the luxury, jet set.

5

Oh my answer is to stick with SRAM Red, which I was able to find deals on and pay thousands less than what DI2 will cost. Maybe the R2C shifters will equalize the aero advantage of the DI2 TT shifters have at a “reasonable cost” of maybe $350. I maintain the biggest advantage of the DI2 group is the brakes with the shifter buttons built in. This will truly equal more time savings than many pieces of aero equipment. I think the biggest victor with this type of pricing will be SRAM, hell the Red group is an exceptional value compared to DI2, Campy Super Record, and even DA 7900. The Force and Rival group are even pretty sweet and priced very well.

6

In Reply To The brake levers are what I think are the game changers, being able to shift to the perfect gear while going into a tight turn or getting ready to climb, all without needing to play twister with your hands trying to shift and brake simultaneously.

actually, there is a very simple way to solve this problem and it doesn’t require electronic dura ace.

Yeah, they’re called Campagnolo Ergos.

BTW, what or where is Bonktown?

7

I have no doubt that Obama will soon be photographed on a new Presidential Bike sporting DI2. He’ll be pedaling along all upright and dragging on his Kool. And the next day, he’ll be in the media saying that anyone who can afford a bike with DI2 is evil and needs to be taxed into the poor house.

8

Bonktown is actually a website, www.bonktown.com. It is but one of many websites run by backcountry.com that serve up 1 item at a time on the website. All deals are cycling related, they have at least one killer deal a day there. I know they had some nice Quintana Roo bikes on there the other day.

9

You have to try it before you knock it. I’ve checked Di2 out and had some customers rave about it that tried it at the handbuilt show last weekend. I will have a bike with Di2 at my store this weekend for an open house and will be interested in what people say about it and the price. I’d like to see it trickle down to Ultegra, but it will still be $3k probably.

I know things went up this year, but a lot of the prices were set when gas was $4+ dollars a gallon and materials were very expensive. Strangely not much has came down in price yet…

Also, I sold three sets of the VumaChrono cranks when they finally came in. Not everyone is hurting in these times, but I wish things would get rolling again like a few years ago (minus all the bad loans).

10

I’m sure we will see the cost of this go down, assuming enough rich guys shell out the dough for it as is.

What they are doing isn’t easy. Precise repeatable electronic control that can handle vibrations dirt and rain year in year out will probably never be cheap.

But I can’t see why it can’t get down under $3k

11

Frankly I think that Shimano would be nuts not to price it like this. There will always be early adopters that want the latest greatest and are willing to pay for it. If there are no issues with the technology I pretty much gurantee that we will see a version for sale that is priced at way less than half the current price and functions better. Look at STI DuraAce 8 speed was very expensive the first season. 105 10 speed is pretty reasonable today and its way better.

Styrrell

12

I have no doubt that Obama will soon be photographed on a new Presidential Bike sporting DI2. He’ll be pedaling along all upright and dragging on his Kool. And the next day, he’ll be in the media saying that anyone who can afford a bike with DI2 is evil and needs to be taxed into the poor house.
X2

13

I’m sure we will see the cost of this go down, assuming enough rich guys shell out the dough for it as is.

What they are doing isn’t easy. Precise repeatable electronic control that can handle vibrations dirt and rain year in year out will probably never be cheap.

But I can’t see why it can’t get down under $3k

What he said… this is the first year for it its going to be price high. Its like saying when plasma TVs came out that no one was ever going to buy them. You’ll have your early adoptors that will pay for a majority of the RD on the product and then it will slowly but surely go down in price until everyone that wants the best can afford it.

I think youre underestimating how much some people are willing to pay for stuff if they want it. Just look at the critique my fit thread. That guy flew like 3 people out to a wind tunnel on his private jet. Those are the people that are going to buy it first to bring down the price.

14

Ahhhh…once again an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Yeah, cables are a real nuisance

15

I checked out Bonktown.com and it looks alot like chainlove.com. I wonder if their owned/powered by the same company? Chainlove is pretty cool. They have a lot of apparel, but once in a while they’ll run a smokin deal on components, wheels, etc.

16

Ahhhh…once again an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Yeah, cables are a real nuisance

Ah but imagine an all wireless system. no holes in the frame for cables to run through

no cables int he wind wasting precious milliwatts

the ability to swap cockpits out in seconds instead of minutes!

17

Ahhhh…once again an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Yeah, cables are a real nuisance

Ah but imagine an all wireless system. no holes in the frame for cables to run through

no cables int he wind wasting precious milliwatts

the ability to swap cockpits out in seconds instead of minutes!

lol…exactly

18

There is two reasons they can get away with charging such high prices.

First, high end luxury products are typically highly inelastic. Inelastic luxury goods are usually consumed by people in market segments populated by people who can often lose millions and still not necessarily need to modify their spending habits. Why? Because their utility for money is not even on the same plane as us mere mortals. I would expect to see these kinds of products on the VIP’s participating in the CEO challange at IM’s. They are the same cats who cycle through ferraris every couple years and view them as their “toys.”

Second, I would venture to say that some of these products are more of a technological showcase. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are the concept cars, but they do help push a technologically advanced brand image. The Bugatti Veyron is an example of this. Bugatti will never make a single penny on any of those sold, even thought they are about 50% higher in cost than any competing car (following dealer markup). The idea is to show that they can just do more, better.

19

Yes, they are both from the same ‘parent’ company or group.

20

I agree with you 100% but part of me wonders if the price won’t come down in the next year or so.