There’s been quite the kerfuffle on the BOB mailing list over the cost of Rivendell‘s two newest, Taiwanese-built framesets, the Sam Hillborne and the Betty Foy. The comments are a mix of outrage (how can they charge so much for a factory-made bike!) to cult-ish defense (Rivendell is doing you a favor by selling these amazing frames for only $1000!). Now, Grant Petersen is a smart fellow, and I’ve found his writing on practical cycling to be quite useful. I think the Atlantis is a great idea. I also find their prices on many items to be rather high, but, then again, I’m not their target market (white males 40-50 with a whole lotta disposable income). That said, if someone has the money to purchase a Riv (complete with $250 saddlebag), more power to them.
My own contribution to the conversation was to point out that Rivendell prices the Taiwanese frames at a point that their market would bear. There was long a rumor that Riv would produce “cheap” Taiwanese-made frames in 2009, so I’m guessing that many Riv regulars emailed Grant and said “hey, I’d buy one of those–I need a grocery-getter,” and Grant did what good marketers/business owners do, and he figured out what price he could ask for his product, sell it, and put food on his table. Now, many of the Riv defenders took some offense to this, seemingly shocked to think that Grant was running a business and not a public service to the bicycle world. Some pointed to this post by Grant to say “See! It’s not about the market!” but I say this was Grant again doing what business owners do–asking his customers to pay for something that they’ve ordered. What chafed me a bit was this sense that Rivendell was doing the cycling world a great service by selling the Hillborne and Foy for $1000, and those companies selling lugged Taiwanese made frames (like Soma) for less were clearly doing something dodgy in order to sell a frame so “cheaply.”
What’s most interesting to me about the whole Rivendell “cult” is the criticism they often level at racers or go-fast riders–that they’ve been somehow duped by the big, bad bicycle companies, trained to spend lots of money on equipment they don’t really need. What these folks forget is that Grant is a master marketer himself, and he’s convinced people to purchase several bikes that serve essentially the same function (that is, is an Atlantis really all that different from a Hilsen or a Bombadil?). I’m not trying to say Grant is evil–he clearly enjoys designing interesting bicycles, and he wants people to ride them, but how is that any different than what Cannondale or Cervelo is doing? I think the middle ground is much more stable here–I giggle at the guy at the Cat 4/5 race with $1500 carbon wheels and $3000 SRM Powermeter as much as I giggle at the guy on the BOB list who one of every Rivendell production frame, plus a Curt Goodrich custom. But, I’m not really judging them, either, because clearly they have the income to burn, so more power to them.
Posted on 14 April 2009