Cycling along - or a treatise on technology vs supply and demand

As a follow-up, I went to the closest cycle shop yesterday to buy a couple of new tyres and tubes so I could finish the refurbishment of yet another bicycle for my daughter.

My preferred shop has recently moved (about 100 metres down the road), but they are apparently not yet open for business at the new location, so an alternative was required - which happens to be closer, and a Giant dealer.

For those not in the cycling world, Giant is a large Japanese manufacturer of bicycles - different to a manufacturer of large Japanese bicycles, and TOTALLY different to a manufacturer of bicycles for large Japanese.

My own favourite bicycle, bought many years ago, is a Giant OCR 1, so I am familiar with the beast, as it were.

Oh, how things have changed!

When I bought mine, Shimano (another large Japanese cycling products company, specialising in all the mechanical bits like brakes, gears, etc) had several ranges of 'group-sets' catering for different budgets and purposes. The low end was Tiagra and Sora with easy change gears, and separate gear and brake levers. The mid-range, and start of the good stuff was 105 - more gears in the rear cluster (nine), combined gear and brake levers, better quality metals. The top end was Ultegra and Dura-ace - very expensive, but had the most gears (ten), the lightest parts, and generally top-quality fit and finish.

Giant used Shimano parts on many of their cycles, and my bike had a 105 group-set, although the steering head bearings came out of some no-name parts bin, and were, unfortunately, rubbish. I changed the head bearings to genuine 105 parts, and had no further issues. As time and distance added up, I changed various other wear components to their Ultegra equivalents. I was riding between 400 and 500 kilometres a week, so it made sense.

Which is all a lead up to what I saw on the latest Giant 'cycles yesterday - Sora group-sets with 9-speed rear clusters, and integrated brake and gear levers; 105's with 10-speed clusters; and Ultegra with 11-speed clusters, and ELECTRIC gear changers (front and rear).

The top of the line Dura-ace had Blue-tooth connections between lever and gears - no wires or cables at all, except to the disc brakes!

Even more startling was the price for this stuff. An all alloy frame (no carbon fibre) with a ten-speed Sora group-set, and disc brakes was $1,100. That is HALF what I paid for my (discontinued and thus discounted) 105-equipped ride mumble-mumble years ago!

A 105-equipped alloy frame machine was about $2,000, and a full carbon fibre frame added only $600 to that price.

I was SO tempted.