2010 bikes worth waiting for?

D!armu!d

Am looking at roadbikes at the moments and was wondering if it would be worth waitng for the 2010 bikes to arrive? Are the groupsets & frames expected to rise or fall in price? Seeing as there are now a good few carbon bikes at not much over €1,000 will all manufacturers be following this downward price trend?

Lumen

If last Christmas was anything to go by, better to wait for the 2009 to be discounted at the end of the year. There were some amazing bargains.

D!armu!d

But are the manufacturers controlling their supply better this year? From talking to a few different shops, there seems to be little supply available of 2009 specialized & giants, as the manufacturers are looking towards orders for 2010 bikes. They might be trying to make sure they are not left with any old stock this year?

roadmanmad

i suggest you get out the yellow pages. Ring the shops and tell them your spec and your budget minus a few hundred. As the yeat progresses a few bikes that may nearly meet your requirement. See how far they are ready to push for a sale. You should be able to tell however the there will be a few others. Otherwise there is the lidl bike, buy no back up service.

scottreynolds

D!armu!d wrote: »

But are the manufacturers controlling their supply better this year? From talking to a few different shops, there seems to be little supply available of 2009 specialized & giants, as the manufacturers are looking towards orders for 2010 bikes. They might be trying to make sure they are not left with any old stock this year?

I'd say thats more likely because of the expected reduction in sales of high end bikes. I mean 1500+. I'd say there's loads of bikes been sold under the cycle to work scheme.

I don't think manufacturer's would be holding back because another manufacturer will just fill the gap as we consumers are that smart that we would wait for a Specialized when a giant would do....

neilled

Generally speaking the 2009 range were lower specced than their 2008 predecessors whilst retaining the same price, component specs were reduced - eg bike X came with a ultegra groupset in 2008 but 105 in 2009, Bike Y came with 105 but went to tiagra this year etc. No idea how things are looking for this year though.

blorg

The 2008 end-year bargains on the net (UK shops) were massively amplified by the collapse of sterling against the euro. 2008 stock was originally priced based on the old exchange rate in the range of 1-1.5, sterling then fell to near parity and then 30%+ discounts for year end were heaped on top of that.

The collapse of sterling is the same reason 2009 models have been downgraded to meet a sterling price point.

There will be bargains for the 2009 stock clearout as there are every year but not on the same scale.

Indeed, Irish local shops appear to becoming more competitive recently.

neilled

blorg wrote: »

The 2008 end-year bargains on the net (UK shops) were massively amplified by the collapse of sterling against the euro. 2008 stock was originally priced based on the old exchange rate in the range of 1-1.5, sterling then fell to near parity and then 30%+ discounts for year end were heaped on top of that.

The collapse of sterling is the same reason 2009 models have been downgraded to meet a sterling price point.

There will be bargains for the 2009 stock clearout as there are every year but not on the same scale.

Indeed, Irish local shops appear to becoming more competitive recently.

I've seen quite a few bikes in the USA and Europe that have been reduced in spec but maintaining the same price - I'd imagine its probably more to do with currency fluctuations in Asia and a high Yen than anything else.

boniver

D!armu!d wrote: »

Am looking at roadbikes at the moments and was wondering if it would be worth waitng for the 2010 bikes to arrive? Are the groupsets & frames expected to rise or fall in price? Seeing as there are now a good few carbon bikes at not much over €1,000 will all manufacturers be following this downward price trend?

The view from within the trade is that 2010 will see price increases over 2009. This is because the vast majority of branded bikes on the Irish market are sourced through UK subsidaries of the large bike companies and the weakness of sterling has made it more expensive for these UK distributors to 'buy' the dollars or euros that they have to pay for their stock. Already this year, companies like Madison (Shimano Distributors) have increased prices on some items by up to 25%.

An early look at some pre-2010 Giants has seen specification dowgrades over the equivelent models from 09. Specialized come into Ireland through the UK arm so I presume this will hit them as well. Trek doesn't, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

If you could get stock of 2009 - and that is a real problem at the moment - I would buy now.

D!armu!d

Thanks for the replies. Anyone heard about what will be happening with the price of Carbon frames?

D!armu!d

From talking to a few shops, it looks like bike prices will be going up next year, as component & wheel prices are rising. Have picked out this bike
http://www.wilierbikes.co.uk/2009/latriestinamirage_black.php#

Any opinions? Is the mirage groupset good quality?

CheGuedara

I've ridden the mirage grouppo before, granted it wasn't the fancy new 10 speed one on that bike but if the previous 9 speed incarnation was anything to go by it's going to be hard wearing, and have good, reliable performance.

D!armu!d

What would the equivalent groupset in Shimano be to the Mirage?

Was looking at the brakes - they don't have the same quick open switch that shimano have & think they need a allen key to open - am I right & is this a lot more hassle?

DirkVoodoo

It goes Xenon then Mirage?

I guess that would put it around 2200/Sora level. I think these equivalencies are a bit difficult to define. Besides the functional differences you can only really compare on weight. Mirage is now 10 speed isn't it? Whereas 2200 is 8 speed and the new Sora I think* is 9 speed.

*When I say "think" I normally mean that I might have read/heard it somewhere, but chances are equally good that I dreamt it and Adriana Lima and I were discussing groupset weights while sipping cocktails on a yacht.

Lumen

I reckon Mirage must be around Tiagra/105 level.

10 speeds, innit.

edit: unfortunately you don't get much of a choice with Wilier in the UK, as the bikes are built with specific groupsets. You can buy framesets from outside the UK and self-build (or get a shop to do it) but that would tend to work out more expensive. I bought an aluminium bike with Veloce on it for about £1100 last Sept, and not sure I'd want to go below that spec for around the £1k mark, but as I say you don't have much choice with that frame.

blorg

D!armu!d wrote: »

Was looking at the brakes - they don't have the same quick open switch that shimano have & think they need a allen key to open - am I right & is this a lot more hassle?

Campagnolo have the quick release on the lever rather than on the caliper. So it is not so bad, the only issue (AFAIK!) is that you can't easily partially loosen your brakes (in the event of a wheel out of true etc.) This isn't such a big deal if you can just get your team mechanic to fit you a new wheel.

Chips Lovell

Mirage is 10 speed, and it'd rate the entry level campag stuff way above the equivalent from Shimano.

As blorg said, the release for the brake is on the shift lever. In the event of a wheel going out of true, it's possible to ride it with the brake release open. It only moves the brake lever out a little bit.