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I've found this same thing to be true with almost anything from clothes, to outdoor gear, to phones. The cheapest things usually wear out so fast you spend too much replacing them but there comes a point where spending more doesn't usually lead to any kind of increase in quality and you're probably just paying for a brand name.

I've been happy with pretty much every midrange purchase I make. I usually regret spending the money when I buy the most expensive thing and learned a while ago not to waste my money on the cheapest.

As far as cars, I know a guy with a Mercedes and it sounds like nothing but trouble. He can't work on it himself, only authorized dealers are allowed to work on it, parts are ridiculously expensive and in the end he uses it for the same thing I use my much less expensive car for, going to work and other random places we need to go. He does have a really nice stereo though...

There's some exceptions. Musical instruments really do get better as the price goes up. You can feel and hear the difference between a $500,$1000,$5000, and $10000 musical instrument. Most tools and equipment used by professionals tends to be that way too. But, I suppose as far as professional gear goes there's probably less of a 'luxury' or 'status' market for those things.

Like most things, different companies bring different things to the high end market. Companies bring different things to the high end bike market. So you can choose from lightest, best race team, flashiest, most durable, best service, best suspension, best design, etc. If you are lucky sometimes more than one. I recommend you take a trip to the most serious trail near you. I think you'll find the popularity of bikes that you actually see on the trail is unrelated to marketing, unrelated to what you see in the bike magazines, and unrelated to what you'd guess by visiting bike stores.

If at all possible I'd look at a more famous place like the popular trails around Tahoe, Downievilla, Moab, North Shore, etc.

For my last bike my wish list was: lifetime frame warranty, threaded (not pressed) bottom bracket, and boost. Other than that I just wanted the one that felt the best. Took me 3 demos of 2 hours each to finally decide.

If you are looking for most reliable I'd check the rentals. If the bike survives a season of rentals without a prohibitive amount of expensive maintenance and parts it will likely last you a life time.

I can assure you that fox forks can last over 5 years without maintenance, but the recommended maintenance schedule is somewhere around annual or 100 to 1000 hours of riding or so.

Current high end disc brakes from SRAM or Shimano can be squeal free under most conditions, which is one of the reasons a large fraction of the high end bikes have switched to them.

I found that after so many years of being disappointed with "high end" expensive stuff, your best bet is to not get the lowest cost thing or the most expensive, but the middle tier stuff

In the contrarian tradition of HN, I'm trying to think of a counter-example and can't. Cars? Toyota > Ferrari if you have to get to work every day (see also: Archer's 308GT that rides around on a flatbed truck). Musical instruments? More expensive wooden stringed instruments sound better because they're built more delicately (read: more hand work). You're not going to hurt a $300 violin. I own a BMW motorcycle now after thirty years of owning less expensive Hondas. Love the bike, but that BMW has been back for niggling warranty work a few times (and so has my wife's). Number of Hondas I've owned that ever saw a dealer after I rode off the lot: zero. Motorcycle riding suits? Klim is eye-wateringly expensive and no better than Aerostich AFAICT. I'll put my Garmin Fenix up against anything Rolex makes if we compare utility, price, and durability. Than there is a whole host of things like appliances where there just isn't a middle ground anymore, and the stuff on both ends sucks (the high end just costs more).

I dunno, maybe phones and computers are the only exception, and I'm not even willing to take a strong stand on that (how much better is a Pixel XL than a $50 no-name Android phone, really?).

> I dunno, maybe phones and computers are the only exception

I'd argue that the iphone and apple products in general are really the apotheosis of this. They are thoroughly mid-ranged mass-market products that are so well designed that there is almost no room for a 'luxury' segment.

>the high end Magura hydraulic disc brakes squealed constantly

Pretty standard for the pads that are designed not to fade out on you under prolonged, heavy use. Sound is not a factor for race-performance gear.

You probably also found their performance pretty crap when they were cold. Performance pads on cars have similar characteristics.

> You probably also found their performance pretty crap when they were cold.

I did find this to be true.

We tried "baking" them several times at the shop. It did help some for a few days and then went back to squealing. I just put up with after a while.

When I finally switched over to SRAM I didn't get any more squealing.

There's a reason why $8-$10k bikes switched from the boutique brake brands to almost entirely SRAM or Shimano.

Yeah its crazy how far SRAM has come. I remember all the guys in our shop thought SRAM was a joke, who could compete with Shimano, right?

The rep all gave us full S9 (which I think now are the X line) setups and said, "Test it out, run into the ground. I'll be back in two months and see what you think."

Two months later, most of the shop was riding SRAM.

That sucks to hear. I guess this is also similar to high-end cars where they are more problematic than a trusty Toyota Corolla. I've love to own a Rolex Explorer or an Omega Seamaster one day but I am not sure I would ever buy one. I've been happy with Seikos and Casios. I daily wear a Seiko sarb033 on a black leather strap and it honestly as classy as I'd ever want out of watch. I really want to believe that branding isn't the only difference when comparing high-end watches but perhaps this is not the case.

The Rolex does have a better bracelet than the SARBs. I bet the chapter ring on your SARB033 has inconsistent spacing between its marks.

That's why I put mine on a snazzy leather strap ;-)

I wonder how low in the price range you have to get before you have visibly uneven chapter ring marks. I think I can print a perfect one on paper on the laser printer here at work. Although the ring on my sarb is not perfectly aligned.

My sarb035 has uneven marks. The minute marks are clearly made in a separate step from the subminute marks, but they're also inconsistently spaced between (different amounts of space left and right of the minute mark, but it's different for each minute too). It's almost like there's somebody manually turning a machine and eyeballing the angle. That might in fact be true... The same is true of every high-res picture of a sarb033 and 035 I've seen. I have a vague memory you can see chapter ring problems with some more expensive models, but it looks like the new 41mm Presage has a perfect chapter ring.

My rule at this point is to avoid Seiko chapter rings, unless it's a Grand Seiko or I can see it in-store.

I'd bet Casio has perfect chapter rings at every price.

I've never noticed an uneven chapter ring! You're going to make me obsessed with staring at my watches. I'm honestly staring at mine and it looks fine. I think I can now see some lines look closer to the minute slashes than others but I don't know if that's because I am looking so hard for unevenness or what. I'll pull out the jeweler's loupe and compare it to my other watches when I get home. I think the watch would work a bit better without a chapter ring at all or at least without the sub-minute hashes. The chapter ring adds sportiness to a watch that otherwise looks a bit dressy.

A fair caveat here is a lot of this will depend upon what field you're buying from. A lot of what you've said is true. There are plenty of others where a "luxury" name carries far more weight with regards to reliability and longevity as opposed to a no-name brand.

I have a collection of phony watches and some of them are spectacularly done.