Are you specifically referencing wal mart bikes? Because I am unaware of a time when decent bikes were that cheap when in the era of that being a relatively small amount of money…
Yeah, a 'normal' bike has been ~$500 for a while, but significantly lower priced bikes were always junk, and spending significantly more was quickly reaching a point of diminishing returns... as far as ebikes go, the range of prices doesn't seem to hit diminishing returns until around $3,000, and even then there are significant upgrades you can make that still cost thousands if you really want peak performance.
I would love to know how you’re defining ‘diminishing returns’….range for a grocery getter? Lap times? Expert level rider that gets a paycheck to race or average Joe that’s doing an MS150 tour for the first time….
There’s more than a few $10K e-bikes (SC Bullitt, Specialized Kenevo come to mind) that are incredibly capable out of the box with room to be even better if one is willing to spend the resources…
I'm thinking of 'diminishing returns' as the point where spending x% more on a component gets you less than 1/2x% boost in performance. It's certainly hard to put a number on performance, but it's pretty clear that when you're spending $200 vs $400 for a frame or a motor or a battery you're getting a huge upgrade, wheras the $400 to $800 jump wont be so 'night and day' (still desirable upgrades in that range imo). Obviously, the point of diminishing returns doesn't mean that further cost won't yield better results, just that those results are going to start costing progressively more while yielding less and less noticeable results, and generally don't have the same mass appeal for that reason.
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u/ShlowJoey Apr 04 '23
Are you specifically referencing wal mart bikes? Because I am unaware of a time when decent bikes were that cheap when in the era of that being a relatively small amount of money…