TiHabanero

"Bicycling is so expensive if you don't DIY. "

Cycling is soooooo cheap as a hobby! Compare to golf, bowling, modeling, hot rods (or just general automobile ownership), home ownership, scuba, running, etc. Not many hobbies out there where one can participate in it every single day for hours and hours and only incur the cost of tires every two years and a tune up. When I was running shoes were costing me $500 a year!

Maelochs

What is ... Supply and Demand?

What is ... Charge what the market will bear?

Those danged billionaire spoke-makers are robbing us.

Jon T

Try l-o-n-g range, competitive, rifle shooting.
Jon

fietsbob

and rent keeps getting cheaper?

bluehills3149

I just bought 80 of these to re-spoke 2x36 spoke wheels. Quality seems OK and marked "S" on the spoke ends which is apparently a Taiwanese company. Steel is non-magnetic too so is genuine austenitic stainless. Works out at 21c a spoke with nipple.

speedevil 

I prefer double-butted DT Swiss spokes, and get them from wheelbuilder.com for $1 each. Nipples are $0.10 each. So about $80 to re/lace a pair of 36-spoke wheels with top quality spokes. If you prefer Sapim spokes, you can get them from danscomp.com for $0.80 each, including nipples. Takes a few days, usually 3 or 4, to get here after ordering. Seems to be reasonable pricing. Bladed spokes are usually at least $3 each, so make sure you have the length correct before you order.

kingston 

DT Competition spokes are 6.80 € for a box of 20 from Rose which makes it less than $15/wheel. Alpine III are only 8.50 € a box. Nipples are 2.00 € for a box of 40.

veganbikes

Anything can be considered expensive. You probably consider expensive because the wally mart special you bought was $100 which seems really cheap but in reality was way overpriced for scrap metal assembled into the shape of a bike. Plenty of hobbies that are way more expensive out there. Cocaine can be way more expensive and is really really really bad for you, Cycling is generally cheaper and is way better for you and can bring a lot of joy and you might see places you never would sitting at home.

I have seen some amazing views and ridden in some awesome places that I would never have gone to had it not been for my bike and yeah the bikes I rode in those locations where not cheap but building up a car with similar specs would be way more and some of these places couldn't be driven to.

Spokes are usually pretty cheap unless you have something exotic like some odd Ti spoke or one of Mavic's proprietary spokes but you do have to pay money for them and the only way to get a bit of discount is to buy in large quantities.

greatscott

The biking industry believes that everyone who rides a bike has money gushing out of their noses and thus will think nothing of spending $12 for a titanium bottle cage bolt, so really considering that bolt you're getting a deal for $2 a spoke, just think if you use that bolt as an example they could charge you $5 a spoke and we would all just cough it up while we get spokes stuck up our arses and smile about it.

Doc_Wui

+1 for Yojimbo. His shop is in Chicago and you can pick them up directly.

This ebay seller is also good. He is in Olney, IL.
https://www.ebay.com/usr/childhood_d...72.m2749.l2754

Neither is as cheap as overseas vendors on ebay, but the spoke length is accurate, quality is better, and you get them in 2-3 days as opposed to 6 weeks.

Retro Grouch 

Olney, Il used to have a manufacturing plant for Weinmann rims and spokes and one that made AMF bicycles. The bikes that were used in the Little 500 or Breaking Away fame were manufactured in Olney.

TheRef

Right
People are funny. They want everything for nothing. $2 bucks... really $2 bucks. What kind of profit the owner made selling a few spokes for $2 bucks? He may have bought a new car or paid his first born college tuition After buying a large amount to stock, not knowing how long will take to sell it all, therefore having capital sitting there, then having an hourly employee take the time to measure and cut to order $2 bucks doesn't seem like a lot. I have a Starbucks addition and I pay $6 bucks for a a latte knowing real well I can buy a pound of coffee and make them at home.

TheRef

I don't know how many hobbies can be cheaper than Cycling. Certainly none of my current or previous hobbies. Fishing comes to mind. One can buy a cheap rod and reel and use worms for bait for close to nothing. Some states require a annual fishing license for like $% bucks or something. I have two neighbors who love fishing. One complains he has to pay the $5 bucks for the license an brags that he goes years at time without paying and laughs he never got caught fishing on the local lakes, pounds and rivers. The other goes on trips, owns a fishing boat, buys all the latest and greatest gear (Did you know Shimano makes reels in different levels just like SORA, Tiagra, Dura-Ace like bicycles?)
Same hobby, two different types of "customers". Same with bicycles.
Of all of my Hobbies my wife would agree cycling is the cheapest even though I love to look and buy stuff.
Here is my quick list:
Coffee - I love to go to a decent coffee shop to read a book and relax. Usually during the winter. That and my almost daily Stabucks trip.
Books and Magazines. - I love to read. Sure I use the library to check out books for free but I like to make notes and keep some books for my personal collection. I spend a lot more on books yearly than on cycling.
Music.--- That's one I don't spend a lot of money anymore. Just like books I used to buy a lot of records and CD. Today I have a $14.99/mo Apple music family Subscription and that's enough.
Movies--- I used to go to the Theaters a lot sometimes a couple of times per week. Due to long hours at work, Family activities/ kids sports. I don't go as much anymore. Still When the 4 of us go to see a movie it can be over $60 bucks easily. I suspect I spend more at the movies than on cycling.
TV/home entertainment -- After the cable/internet, Amazon Prime (for movies), Netflix, HBO and Showtime... (I should cut all or some but hey.. It's winter 5 mouths out of the winter here.
Concerts -- I try to go to a couple concerts every year. Have you seen the price of a good concert lately?
Motorcycling --- I used to be into motorbikes, I used to do a few track days every summer-- Haven't done in over 10 years just when I sold my motorcycle and bought my first motorcycle. My wife was overjoyed.

Still think cycling is expensive???

honcho

^^^^ Given the amount of time it took a local shop to find the right length for some replacement spokes, they definitely didn't make any money selling me 3 spokes at $2 each. I'd resist buying enough to lace a wheelset at $2 each, because it's likely they'd have to order them anyway and I personally have no loyalty to any local shop. That said, retailers do have a right to price items to make a reasonable profit. Similarly, cycling consumers are free to spend their money where they wish.

greatscott

Ahh but you see all that stuff you mentioned just depends on how frugal a person wants to be. Me for example, you mentioned fishing, I fish, I fish with bait, lures and flies (is it flys or flies?), fly fishing has become cheaper now then lures use to be, the flies are made in China and I get 10 flies for $8 vs one lure for $10 and more, it use to be I had to pay $4 to $5 for one fly handmade in America because China wasn't making them, and a lure would cost me $3, so things have changed in that area quite a bit. I don't have expensive gear either, and I get a lot of lures from Walmart at the end of the season closeout sales and save a lot of money vs Bass Pro Shops (what a ripoff that place is!). I saw a tackle box that fit my needs perfectly, I found out from Plano that Bass Pro Shops sold them so down I go to get it $125 box, hmmm I wait till closeout sales, except I happen to find the exact same box at Walmart for $49, guess where I bought it? But fishing for me is cheaper than cycling because I don't spend that much money getting stuff that I need for the season, of course some people go whole hog and have fast expensive fishing boats and gear, well that's not me, I use waders instead of a boat. And my fishing gear is probably equivalent to Shimano 105, not the best but works just fine and I've had the gear for years so there's been no replacement cost except maybe once every two years I do have to buy fresh line.

Coffee? I rarely go to some fancy place and buy coffee, why when I can't make it at home for a lot less money, and my cold brew coffee maker cost me $25, my Moka pot cost me $25, though I am considering a Turkish coffee maker and that one will cost me around $250 plus another $200 for a turkish coffee grinder, so that will be my one and only splurge on coffee! Heck people spend more at Starbucks in a year then I will buying what I need to make Turkish coffee!!

Books and mags I go to the library, I do have books in my own library but I don't actively buy books unless I need to reference one at any given time and thus need it to be at the house, but a lot of reference type stuff can now be found free on the internet, so my book buying days are way behind me, I don't like to read fiction or scifi or fantasy books so any expense on buying a book these days is nil. The only time I'll buy a mag is if I'm going on a flight then I'll buy a couple of mags to read while in the air.

Movies; all my kids are out of the house so it's just my wife and I, we go maybe 3 times a year at the most; we have Netflix so we can either order the DVD or watch if directly on our TV, and I don't have to put up with a somewhat blurry screen picture that most movie places have. Netflix cost me $9 a month.

Internet; ok that is essential in todays world, I don't consider it a hobby because I don't play games on it nor chat away on Facebook, I get the slowest speed one that cost me $40 a month.

Music: I do buy CD's, but I buy most of them used at a used CD store I frequent, but I probably only spend about $50 a year on CD's at the most.

Smoking; is that hobby? I don't smoke anything so it doesn't matter.

Drinking: is that hobby? I only drink an occasional dark beer at a restaurant, never keep it at home.

TV; I use an outdoor antenna and get all that I want to watch for free, if I want to see a show or a movie I'll push a button and pull of Netflix. Cable and Sat TV are a ripoff in my opinion, but maybe necessary if a person lives someplace where there is no TV reception. At one time I did have cable with 150 or so stations, and guess what I found? NOTHING!!! I found myself watching mostly network TV, so when NetFlix went online I went offline with cable.

Concerts: I use to go to concerts a lot when I was young but since I got married I've been to maybe 6 or 7 concerts in 30 years, one person I knew had to go to every single Dead concert no matter where in the world it was, she spent a lot of money doing that, but she made a lot of money too and she was single so what the heck.

Motorcycles; never owned one nor any other type of motorsport hobby, why? because I'm not some rich dude in California that I can afford to play with such toys, not that I wouldn't like to though!
Cycling; no, I spend more money on Cycling then anything else I do hobby wise, it adds up fast by the time you get done with replacement clothes, tires, tubes, etc, etc. I never added up all the money I spend on cycling, but it's probably lower than most here would spend, but I would say between $100 to $300 depending on what I need when I need it.

So while there are some people who max out their cable subscription, go to Starbucks every day and spend $5, buy 50 CD's a year, go to movies 2 or 3 times a week, breakout the 4X4 and go mud whomping, etc, well that's not me. But at my income level I need to save for retirement not toys and hobbies, I do spend more money for my retirement planning package then all my stuff that I do combined, but that's not a hobby, it's essential.

Rick

I don't like the bend on DT spokes. I use Sapim or Wheel Smith spokes. $2 spokes is to high of a price to pay, even in CA.

Maelochs

I think it is about time this site addressed the evils of spoke-overharvesting. What will you do when all the spokes are gone?