B17s are $99 on Amazon with free shipping. Selle Anatomica is having a $99 sale until the end of 2012.
Jay 1On Nov 23, 6:40 pm, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote: > 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.
