On Nov 23, 2012, at 9:21 AM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery <thill....@gmail.com> wrote:
> When I first opened Hiawatha Cyclery in 2005-06, my wholesale price on a > standard B17 was $33 and retail prices were $75+. At that time, Brooks was > being acquired by a new owner. That new owner, from my perspective, picked up > on the fact that Brooks had become a boutique brand (partly thanks to Riv!) > that would benefit from a high, exclusive price. The import/distribution > channel also changed. Prices rose pretty dramatically at first during this > transition, then stabilized and rose more slowly to the present $70-75 range > for a B17 (wholesale price for US retailers, who have mostly kept a margins > constant to sell at $110-120). I think that is exactly right and not just with Brooks and its new owners. A lot of manufacturers have pegged the fact that the upper end of the bike market tends to be a bunch of suckers. $100 chains, $200 cassettes, etc. Bike component prices at the high end are just plain stupid in many cases (Campy, Shimano, Sram, etc.). IME the new Brooks saddles don't last as long and aren't as comfortable as the ones from 30 years ago (although the new ones get comfortable sooner)- I still ride a Pro I bought new in 1977. The old Brooks company was pickier about leather, IMHO. The new ones are still better than 90% of the saddles out there, though, and a lot of those cost even more than a Brooks. My other hobby is playing music and the exact same phenomenon can be readily observed in guitars and accessories. Something with $40 worth of parts retails for $250 and guitarists buy 'em. I know people with boxes full of "obsolete" stomp boxes and the like, abandoned when the next cool thing came along. Both have the equivalent of Rivendell customs or Richard Sachs or Bruce Gordon: finely crafted, carefully thought out works of useable art. And in both bikes and guitars one can get at least 90% of the performance at a fraction of the price. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
