[xavieralexandre]

I expect bike and component prices to go down with wider adoption. Especially e-bikes. I was for example surprised to see that on my kids-towing e-bike in a hilly city I have to change front-disc-brakes pads approximately every 1'000km which, at 20€ a pair of disc-brakes pads in Switzerland, translates to approximately 0.02€ per km just for braking. Which at the end of the day is not an issue for me but seems SO expensive in comparison with a car.

[abyssin]

I believe it might have to do with the near-monopolies of bike component producers, like Shimano or SRAM. It might also be related to the antiquated model of distribution with local bike shops that have little freedom about how they can sell within the exclusive contracts they have with big brands.

There's also the mix of leisure practice of cycling that clashes with a more practical use. In the first case, bikes are almost a Veblen good. People are happy to spend crazy amounts of money to save what is in the end very little weight.

For instance I recently looked SRAM Eagle groupset prices. The cheapest version is $380, and the most expensive one is $1,381. The weights are 2032 g and 1,502 g respectively. Almost 4 times the price for saving 25% of the weight!

Consumers that are ready to spend that amount of money get a lot of attention from the industry, that has little incentive to cater to the needs of daily cycling commuters, who're looking for cheap, reliable and durable bikes.

[jacquesm]

Bikes could not possible get 'wider adoption' where I live and yet prices are what they are. Switzerland is probably one of the worst countries for bike brake maintenance, here I got for many years between pads/discs and I cycle a lot, as much as most people would drive their car.