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when did forks get so expensive? ...oh yeah, thanks fox.

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,127
7,677
Transylvania 90210
anyone else notice the amazingly insane price jump in forks over the last few years? (i know, i sound like an old man, but i kinda am). if my memory serves, there weren't too many forks anywhere near the $1,000 price mark until after fox hit the market with the 40. now we have single crowns that are $1,000 and dual crowns well over that mark.

how much of that is technology improvement? how much of that is just the new supply & demand curves meeting point?

also, why don't i see more avalanche forks out there. their quality is legendary, and their pricing hasn't moved much (around $1,300). seeing how they are no longer priced far beyond everything else on the market, like they once were, i would expect them to be more of a presence.

rant off.
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
fox is to blame? that's a pretty funny theory

DH forks, especially the high end models, have been $1000 or more for the past 10 years. the original boxxer was $1000 in 1998, and models from hannebrink, foes, etc were even more back then.

now you can get 3 models of the boxxer with the base price of $650

as for expensive single crown forks, last i checked the crown was not what made a fork expensive... and in case you had not noticed, high end XC forks have been up around the $1000 mark for some time as well.

but yeah... just blame fox :poster_oops:
 

dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
lets look at the totem for example.

When I first wrote the preview about the fork, everyone flipped out, saying paying that much for a single crown fork was ridiculous. But the amount of adjustments and technology in it puts it far beyond a boxxer team, at a somewhat similar price. So one fork has one crown and a ton of tech, the other has two crowns and less in it. But somehow the price of the less advanced fork is fine...

I have no idea what it is about crowns that makes people htink a fork is worth more. I am going to suggest to avalanche that they make a fork with 6 crowns though, and sell it for 5000 bucks. I mean, more crowns is more betterz!
 

Ian Collins

Turbo Monkey
Oct 4, 2001
1,428
0
Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA
mr dirt forks, risse forks, curnutt/foes forks, kowa and a few others were pretty expensive back in the day and some still are.....nobody really rides those.....the fox is expensive but still popular and not really considered botique.....

i'll be getting one soon...they are worth the money, and not ridiculous in price.....

look at the prices of fox off road truck shocks.....they're just plain expensive.....

as far as a general trend of forks getting more expensive.....i think alot of things are getting more pricey as the cost of gasoline, aluminum, steel, and inflation all go up
 

Udi

RM Chief Ornithologist
Mar 14, 2005
4,915
1,200
i think alot of things are getting more pricey as the cost of gasoline, aluminum, steel, and inflation all go up
yeah damn inflation's getting expensive these days. i can't afford to keep air in my tyres!

:busted:
 

davet

Monkey
Jun 24, 2004
551
3
lets look at the totem for example.

When I first wrote the preview about the fork, everyone flipped out, saying paying that much for a single crown fork was ridiculous.
Now almost everone that paid that much for that single crown fork is still flipping out with all the issues you got for your investment. As a 2step owner that hasn't had a properly working fork since the second week of ownership at the beginning of this year, I'm particularly pissed off.

But I guess that's a whole different thread.
 

ThePriceSeliger

Mushhead
Mar 31, 2004
4,860
0
Denver, Colorado
Well they shouldn't be replaced every season for the average rider. I think $1000 dollars is fine if you use that part for up to two or three years minimum. My 888 is from 2005 and I plan on keeping it untill it breaks in half. The expensive cost is just fine, just don't pretend to be a factory riders and get a whole new set-up every season.
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
When the 40 came out, fox raised the bar a bit by including things like Ti springs and multiply springs. And a $1400 price tag. Marz responded by raising their price and including Ti springs. The stock boxxer team looks like a killer deal now.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
as far as a general trend of forks getting more expensive.....i think alot of things are getting more pricey as the cost of gasoline, aluminum, steel, and inflation all go up
Bike industry MSRP pricing has FAR outpaced inflation+price of raw goods (actually commodities quite cheap except for oil) for the past 3-4 years...see Specialized for example. :)
 

dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
Now almost everone that paid that much for that single crown fork is still flipping out with all the issues you got for your investment. As a 2step owner that hasn't had a properly working fork since the second week of ownership at the beginning of this year, I'm particularly pissed off.

But I guess that's a whole different thread.
Far as I know, they've fixed the 2step issue. Contact SRAM, see what they say.
 

davet

Monkey
Jun 24, 2004
551
3
Far as I know, they've fixed the 2step issue. Contact SRAM, see what they say.
I have and they haven't. As recently as Interbike they were still working on it.

They've got a kit for the Lyric's, the Totem should be done in the next few weeks.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Releasing a product to the public without adequate testing is unacceptable in any business. To not even be able to fix it properly for 10 months (or more) is beyond definition.

If it didn't feel so damn good it would have been gone at the beginning, but warranty has taken care of me very well and let's face it, who could I sell it to? I'm sure a few months after it's all fixed up all will be forgotten. I assume that's Rockshox hopes, but for me - I'll be hard pressed to buy another Rockshox product.
 

big-ted

Danced with A, attacked by C, fired by D.
Sep 27, 2005
1,400
47
Vancouver, BC
I'm actually really surprised Sram haven't found themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit over the 2-step forks. Basically, the product isn't fit for purpose.

Kind of stupid to blame Fox for the increase in price though. The Boxxer team has way more performance at almost half the cost of the original boxxer. Isn't it really only the 40 that's priced so high anyway? The 888WC, Boxxer WC and Travis Ti all come in cheaper.
 

TheMontashu

Pourly Tatteued Jeu
Mar 15, 2004
5,549
0
I'm homeless
Bike industry MSRP pricing has FAR outpaced inflation+price of raw goods (actually commodities quite cheap except for oil) for the past 3-4 years...see Specialized for example. :)
Metal prices are WAY up, leas especialy. my ammos for shooting has more than doubled in the past 3 years or so
 

Supernaut

Chimp
Feb 12, 2007
49
0
Oslo, Norway
yup, the dorado sat you back about NOK 20,000,-
Multiply by 6 to get the aprox NOK\USD conversion rate from 03\04
Things cost a bit more in Norway than in the US though.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
if i had 1/10th the skills of patineto i would fabricate myself a dh bike out of mx parts.

dh pricing, and mtb pricing in general to a lesser degree, is egregious. you're all paying for product placement in the magazines...
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,127
7,677
Transylvania 90210
i remember checking out the prices of a "real" dh rig about 5 years ago when i decided to get into "the scene" and i don't recall the boxxers being that expensive. the marz forks were loads cheaper than they are now. i think the super-t and the even the shiver were sub $900 (if memory serves). i just remember when the 40 hit the market and everyone gawked at how much it cost. now it seems that peeps are much more comfortable droping that kind of coin and the other fork makers are going big too.
 

snowskilz

xblue attacked piggy won
May 15, 2004
612
0
rado
iirc no main stream aluminum fork out at the time was over 1200 when the fox 40 came out. The 888 had just come out and was 1149 and the boxxer was 1199. Now that fox proved that ppl will pay everyone else jumped on the wago. Since then every company has stepped up their product lineup and fox has added shiny stantions

On most occasions you get what you pay for, on a few your overpaying for lower qualities
 

Huck Banzai

Turbo Monkey
May 8, 2005
2,523
23
Transitory
i remember checking out the prices of a "real" dh rig about 5 years ago when i decided to get into "the scene" and i don't recall the boxxers being that expensive. the marz forks were loads cheaper than they are now. i think the super-t and the even the shiver were sub $900 (if memory serves). i just remember when the 40 hit the market and everyone gawked at how much it cost. now it seems that peeps are much more comfortable droping that kind of coin and the other fork makers are going big too.
Sort of like when Red Bull showed up and jacked up the acceptable pricin of beverages! Does it cost more to make? No! Will people pay more for it? Yes! Charge more!

I think its a little bit of 2 ingredients: 1 - Fox proved the market was willing to dole out the $, so others stepped into that arena as well. 2 - Hype goes a long way - as with the red bull, and a variety of other products - MTB forks included, people were willing to bear the cost and standard pricing rose!
 

ballaholyk84

Monkey
Aug 24, 2007
143
0
Beaverton, OR
I am currently riding a Risse Trixxxy and have had it on my Big Hit since it was new back in 2005. I love the thing and Yeah I thought $1,000 was quite a bit to spend on that but at the same time its lasted me this long and I wont replace it until its no longer Overhaulable. Once its shot though I do plan on picking up a 40 just for the simple fact thats its a nice fork and you get what you pay for.

Ever heard the saying "Buy cheap, Buy twice"? I look at that every day about things and so far its never let me down. Only when I buy cheap things do I have to replace it with better.

Just my $.02
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
iirc no main stream aluminum fork out at the time was over 1200 when the fox 40 came out. The 888 had just come out and was 1149 and the boxxer was 1199. Now that fox proved that ppl will pay everyone else jumped on the wago. Since then every company has stepped up their product lineup and fox has added shiny stantions

On most occasions you get what you pay for, on a few your overpaying for lower qualities
Most fork lowers are Magnesium.
 

skatetokil

Turbo Monkey
Jan 2, 2005
2,383
-1
DC/Bluemont VA
you may have noticed that the dollar is now worth less, leading commodities priced in dollars to cost more even though the real price is much the same.
 

ZHendo

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2006
1,661
147
PNW
it wasn't just fox, sure the 40 was way expensive, but didn't rockshox pass them with the boxxer wc and the totem 2-step? the dorado was an insanely popular fork and cost stupid amounts of money, so i think that manitou may have started the whole expensive fork thing. i don't think that forks would be where they are today without the boosted pricing acceptance though. they're still overpriced any way you look at it, but some of the technology that is coming out is likely a result of a company wanting to charge a lot for a product but also wanting it to be somewhat worth the extra cash over the lower level offerings.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,850
9,556
AK
When the 40 came out, fox raised the bar a bit by including things like Ti springs and multiply springs. And a $1400 price tag. Marz responded by raising their price and including Ti springs. The stock boxxer team looks like a killer deal now.
Maybe if you started DHing in 2004, but Manitou had already been there with their X-Vert Ti DH racing fork, it had a Ti spring stack combined with short elastomers to ramp up and provide some progression. It was the predecessor to the Xvert Carbon. It was nowhere near perfect, but it's not like fox was the first one to do any of these things. Speaking of the x-vert carbon($1800?), whether it was a good fork or not, it introduced more "carbon bling" as well, so once again, just because fox came out with the 40 doesn't mean companies haven't been doing this kind of crap for a while.

You guys shouldn't complain so much, a 100% CNCed handmade marzocchi Super T cost about $2400 back in 1997, and although it was far beyond anything that was being produced at the time in terms of technology, that's a hefty sum. I think in 1998 it went down a bit to around $1800 or so.
 

ChrisRobin

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2002
3,346
190
Vancouver
also, why don't i see more avalanche forks out there. their quality is legendary, and their pricing hasn't moved much (around $1,300). seeing how they are no longer priced far beyond everything else on the market, like they once were, i would expect them to be more of a presence.

rant off.
I don't think I saw anyone address this specifically, but not too long ago there was a thread talking about how the newer forks are now comparable in terms of damping tech. Quality? Not sure but in the end, the consensus is you can make a lighter, stiffer fork that's NOT inverted.
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
...100% CNCed handmade marzocchi Super T cost about $2400 back in 1997...
I remember that fork, it was super hot!! Did they actually sell that thing? I thought it was just a proto