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Originally Posted by punky
My point wasn't the weight, it was the cost of the material. Steel, iron, aluminimum are cheap. Cheaper than you'd think.
I'm talking wholesale cost of materials here. Good tires and cheap tires are still made out of rubber. Sometimes small composites may be added but it doesn't send the price soaring.
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I just looked it up. Hot-rolled steel coil costs $550 per ton. 23 kgs of it is $12.65. Then there's the cost of making a bike out of it. And you've got to buy tyres. Kevlar reinforced ones preferably, so you don't have to fix a flat every other day.
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However you cost it though, I am sure the bikes do not cost £300 to replace and so they are profiting out of people's misfortune. I'm sure there are admin costs to replace the bike etc, but i'm sure they've budgetted for a bit of revenue in there.
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They may well be cheaper, just not as ridiculously cheap as you seem to think. Building a sturdy product comes at a price as well.
I suspect part of the price is the consideration would be to not tempt people to have one 'go missing' and keep it or sell it on.