Why so much price inflation since 1997?

Triathlon Forum
1

I was heavily involved in the triathlon scene for years during junior high and high school. Back in the day I used to drool over dream bikes from Trek and Kestrel that cost $3-$4K tops complete w/zipps latest wheels and all the toys. Of course, during that time I raced on a $500 fuji because, like most, I didn’t have the cash for my dream steed.

Today I’m 24 years old and after four years of no racing and a sedentary lifestyle plus 20lbs of weight, I’ve decided I want to get my sh_t together, get in shape, and race again. I figured this would be opportunity to buy that $3-$4K dream bike I could never afford back then…but to my surprise I am finding that $3-$4K doesn’t get you anything close to the latest and greatest. For $3.5K I can afford a Cervelo P3 SL w/ Ultegra, training wheels, and shoes and I’m broke, lol.

What gives? How much are people spending on racing bikes these days. Are $3-$4K bikes no longer rare at the local tri and duathlon? And what ever happened to the good old Shimano 105? Hopefully the ultegra of today is superior to the ultegra of old since it’s twice the price. And hopefully those $1600 zipp wheels, formerly around $900, spin themselves, lol.

Sam

2

Bikes are better and cheaper now. A Cervelo Dual is better than anything you could have bought 4-5 years ago, and it’s ‘only’ about $1600. This is a bike that is truly good enough to win an Ironman on, if you’ve got the horsepower.

But of course, the high high end is much higher. And, the bikes in the stratosphere are better, but not much better. Look at a Lucero, the current velocipede du jour on ST. great bike, very fast and very expensive. But how much better than a Dual … not much.