Why do so many 2021 bikes cost upwards of £10,000?

Michelle Arthurs-Brennan investigates various factors behind the hike in new bike prices

- Michelle Arthurs-Brennan

A raft of this year’s hottest launches contained a halo bike above £10,000. Price tags that were once the lofty preserve of niche (often Italian) brands that sat in the garages of millionaires have now trickled down to the club run, leading to questions from some riders, and outrage from others.

“Surely, you could buy a motorbike for that money?” is a not uncommon refrain.

For Specialized there was the £10,500 Tarmac S-Works SL7 and £10,750 S-Works Aethos, both of which had an extra £1,000 added to the price months later. For BMC it was the SLR01 One with SR AM Red AXS, at £10,250. Trek’s Emonda SLR09 sat just below the threshold at £9,700 while the Giant TCR SL Disc was released at £9,499 before jumping up to £9,699 soon after launch. Then, there was that €10,000 BMC Masterpiece frame.

These price hikes are above inflation and are focused on the upper ends of bike ranges. A 2015 S-Works Tarmac SL5 Disc RRP’d at £8,000 while the 2021 S-Works Tarmac SL7 sits at £11,500. In comparison, a Shimano 105-specced Allez was £1,200 in 2015 — the 2021 model is £1,249. In all cases, of course, bikes have seen change and development.

I set about to ask some smaller brands what they thought might be driving this price increase. The answers surprised me.

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“Obviously, things like exchange rates and Brexit are going to affect price points,” explains Tim Allen, who builds bikes for customers at Soigneur London as well as having his own contacts in production. However, he reckons the price boost has more to do with material costs than shipping costs.