Originally Posted by
CliffordK
Thanks for the video.
Only Walmart can make a 30 pound carbon fiber bike.
Thinking about this, we're seeing an influx of < $250 or so carbon fiber frames direct from China.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-5-27-5er...e/183109596749
Walmart likely can purchase in bulk, bulk ship, and acquire them much cheaper.
$100 per frame? Plus, $100 for the rest of the bike? Then a huge markup.
I suppose the question then is, why didn't Walmart do this earlier?
It is an odd market that they've chosen. 26" is very much passe, but perhaps they'e marketing to the young teenager market. Who wants to be the first kid to ride a carbon fiber bike to middle school?
Although my maths is slightly different that is my viewpoint. Carbon frames are made in China for about $40-80 although that might be road bike prices, this has a little more material. Let's say its the full $80 and then the rest of the bike is pretty much bottom end components maybe another $40 so $120 in total. Bikes tend to end up at about 4x their manufacturing cost at retail but walmart may take a slightly lower margin and there you have your $400 carbon fibre mountain bike. Now you just have to find a slightly better donor bike with hydraulic disc brakes, better fork, proper freehub drivetrain and swop all the components around so the carbon bike is pretty decent and you end up with another mountain bike spare to sell on made up of the inferior components.
It's a wierd thing to beyond when you spend pretty much all the money on the frame and the rest of the bike is junk components pretty much.