Hacker News Reader

Comment by JWLong | Hacker News Reader

The bikes that the average truck-loader comes in contact with cost $120.

Doubtful. The largest mail order bike companies are rather upscale. Look at Canyon, Planet X, Rose, Bikes direct, and others for a sampling of the most popular mail deliver bike companies. These aren't fly-by-night sketchy retailers either, Canyon bikes are ridden by many pro teams despite not having a storefront presence.

Absolutely, but I was speaking to the experience of the loaders.

Edit: Sorry, I should have made that clearer in my previous comment.

You mean the fully assembled ones they ride or see others riding, right? It took me a bit to figure out you meant that and not the ones in the boxes they handle. That might be the confusion.

Majority of bikes we sold at our shop cost around 200-300 USD for us to purchase (retail price would be around 2x that). This was in expensive Norway, and there were plenty of generic sports stores that sold bikes at down to 1/2 of what we did. So for to-retailer price in US, that 120 USD does not seem too crazy.

Don't forget that "good bikes" are actually very rare, especially if counted in volume (not price).

$120 would be the sale price of the bicycle, but presumably without sales tax since Americans don't include it when discussing price.

You can buy an adult mountain bike for £80 including 20% VAT in the UK. That's $100.

I've used one like this, it lasted less than 6 months of daily use before the sprockets, wheels, bearings and brakes were ruined.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/north-gear-rxt-mens-adults-mount...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com