Just read an enthusiastic review of the Trek Madone SLR 9 AXS Gen 8 (what a name!) racing bike, which sells for $15,999 in the US of A. By the way I still don’t know how to pronounce their line of racing bikes, is it “Madone” like in “Al Capone”? I’d rather think of these as “Mad One”s 😉
And yes, 15.999 is indeed a hefty sum for a bicycle, don’t you think? I once got a second hand Peugeot racing bike from an uncle of mine (RIP Wolfgang) for IIRC about 200DM or so (100€). Peugeot cycles was the big name during that time, even Eddy Merckx rode one, as you can see here. I know I know, apples and oranges, but I loved that old steel bike, still have a steel bike from another German manufacturer today. And to further compare prices, I think I bought my Honda NTV motorcycle used for about 2.500DM – today you won’t even get a Honda Cub for the same amount in Euros… and our used Toyota Yaris Hybrid was also less than 16k…
Why do I even mention that all here? Because of the latest trade tariffs of the US against China of course. I don’t know much about Trek, but last time I looked, pretty much all of today’s modern carbon frames were made either in Taiwan (which is the world’s number 1 bicycle maker), or in mainland China. And now imagine +145% tax for importing these into the US – that same bike could soon cost north of 30k or so – which will make it a hobby for the rich I guess. Which would be, as mentioned in the headline, a pretty penny indeed, way out of reach for mere mortals. Crazy times, aren’t these?
I’m happy with our steel bikes which 10 years ago did cost some 800€ or so each. More than enough for me, even if I can’t race with that one, but who cares?
As always, thanks for reading.
