I haven’t really been paying attention to how much bikes and parts cost. I don’t go to the manufactures website and see what the price for their top end road or MTB bikes sell for. Last year, I remembering going into a Trek Concept Store in San Diego and ended taking photos of the price tags because it amazed me, but I didn’t really spend enough time in there to understand how stupid expensive that nearly everything is now.

Trudi just got a email from BMC, seeing if she wants to get a bike. It listed the retail costs of the BMC line. There is a TT bike that costs nearly $12000. So, I went to the Specialized website and saw that is about the same price for their new Shiv TT Di2 bike. $11000 for the high end Tarmac. The Epic MTB is a more reasonable $10500 with Sram or XTR parts.

These numbers are insane. I can’t really understand it. Then I started looking at individual parts. And it’s even more stupid. Hydraulic brakes can cost nearly $400 a wheel. Seats that top $200. And that isn’t an expensive one. Carbon railed seats over $300. What happened to the $30 seat. I’ve have to work 3 jobs if I had to buy a new seat everytime I ruined one. They break by nearly just looking at them now. I used to ride the same saddle season after season.

I might not ever advise anyone to ever to go out and purchase a new MTB bike. If I hit the wrong race with that new bike, I could take it’s $10000 retail value bike down to less the $2000 in just a couple hours. I did that once in Brazil.

I was riding for Specialized and took a brand new race bike to a Cactus Cup in Sao Paulo one February. It rained the whole day before and the course was solid clay. It was a 3 mile loop and took close to 45 minutes for each of 3 laps. There wasn’t a part on that bike, well, maybe the tires, that didn’t need to be replaced. I carried the bike so much on my shoulder, cyclo-x style, that all the paint on the left side of my bike was gone and it was down to bare aluminum.

I thought that the price of carbon wheels was getting kind of out of control. But if you look around, you can get a pretty light set of good wheels for less than $1000. That seems like a deal compared to hydraulic brakes. The same with the electronic Di2 shifting. I thought it was insanely priced. Now it doesn’t seem so nuts, considering how well it works.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I guess I want to stress that in most circumstances, bike racing doesn’t come down to what equipment you have. For sure, your equipment has to work properly, but don’t get caught up in riding an UCI weight limit bike of 6.8 kg (a little under 15 lbs.) I’ve never had a road bike close to that weight. Todd Wells’ cross bike nearly weighs less than my road bike and my road bike is pretty stupid light.

For road racing, I’d sink my extra $$$’s in wheels and tires. For MTB and cross, tires are the most the most important piece of equipment on your bike. Other than that, get by with what you can. If you have the means to be riding a $12000 bike, go for it. There is nothing like it. But, if you don’t have the means, don’t let it stress you out too badly. It’s mostly the engine that gets you to the finish line first.

Here on eBay, you can get Dave Zabriskie’s old TT bike for a modest $5500. Of course, you’re going to have to drop another $3000 on fast wheels.

Cyclingnews.com had this article on one of the BMC riders, Amaël Moinard, who in a video talks about how great it is to be a domestic. I’ll never understand it.

This guy finished 15th in the Tour in 2008 and now he is happy riding tempo for someone else. I wonder if that is why he started the sport? It’s guys like this that make the sport boring. Actually, I’m probably being too hard on him. The sport has dictated that good riders become domestiques. It has to mainly be a $$$$ issue. Which is sad.

John Wilcockson wrote this article on Velonews about why he thinks that a lot of “underdogs” won big races this year. Some of what he wrote is true. But the main reason that there were a bunch of unexpected winners is because in cycling, the best guy doesn’t always win any given individual race. That is what is so great about the sport. The outcome will differ each and every time the event is held. And as the drugs become less prevalent, there will be more and more unexpected winners. The lack of drugs in the peleton will make the sport more exciting, but much less predictable.

The reason the sport came up with these long Grand Tours is because, in theory , after that many days, the best rider will win. But, that isn’t a 100% guarantee.

I’ll never understand the domestique mentality. I hate setting tempo. I look forward to when the race is going to get to the pivotal selection and see how it is going to play out. I hate having a bad day and missing observing the decisive moves from within.

I’ve ridden with a few guys that were wired to be domestiques. I’d say it would be a toss up between Roy Knickman and Joe Parkin on who relished in it more. Joe probably had the goods to be the best at it. His physical attributes matched up good with a strong worker. Roy, on the other hand, had to mold himself into a domestique. His physical abilities were of a race winner. He had to tone down that ability to fit the role. One thing that both of them shared was the same mentality. They wanted to go into the wind and ride. Ride for someone else. Neither were weak mentality. Exactly the opposite, both were hard guys on a bike. I think it was more of not wanting the internal, personal pressure of having to ride for themselves. But that still might not be right. Maybe they got more satisfaction out of helping someone else win than wining themselves. I’ll probably never know completely, even if they explained it to me themselves. Roy is a fireman now in California. That is the perfect job for his team mentality.

Anyway, this mentality has made its way into domestic racing. Young guys want to go and set tempo. You don’t learn much about the sport by riding to set tempo. Young guys need to watch what is going on and figure out the flow of the race. You can’t do that by doing a 6 rider TTT at the front for the first 3 hours and then get popped when the race really starts.

I do understand the need for domestiques in cycling. Especially in the Grand Tours and longer stage races. But we really need more bike racers and not so many bike riders. Strong guys don’t always win. Sometimes they never win. We should hope that our strong guys want to win. That is what makes a great bike racer.

Joe got all his wiring mixed up in Belgium.

And Roy in France or somewhere in Europe. Man, those brake levers are low.

Roy working for Oravitz at Killington.