At 09:58 AM 6/13/2006, Tom Theisen wrote:
As for the higher cost of road bikes, I'm not sure why this is, but I think this also has a lot to do with weight. One feature that people value in road bikes is light weight. Unfortunately, that tends to make things expensive.
I haven't worked in a bike shop in five years, but I suspect that the price difference between hybrids and road bikes is (still) mostly a function of the volume of each category produced. Although the market for road bikes is growing, especially since Lance started winning Le Tour, it is still a very small fraction of the number of hybrids and mountain bikes (which are essentially similar except for wheel diameter) sold in the US. This also meant that, at least five years ago, manufacturers generally didn't bother to make or spec road bikes to meet price points as low as some of their hybrids, the assumption being that anyone that wanted a "real" road bike would want a better than the bottom of the line bike.
chuck
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