linberl

Meh. For $4500 I could buy myself a PakiT or Brompton and a Pocket Rocket and still take a vacation. Seems like the real justification is bragging rights for the rich.

Bonzo Banana

For normal size road bikes there does seem to be people prepared to pay thousands for carbon over aluminium to get a fractionally lighter bike with better ride quality but they are motivated by riding faster for racing, but whether such people exist now or can be persuaded to exist in the folding bike market sector is debatable.

If the bike can shave off 15 mins of riding time per week based on not having to haul 4kg of weight everywhere you go so effectively you get back an hour of your life per month for the next 5 years lets say, 60hrs shared by £3500 is about £60 per hour. If your working hours are 40 but your commute adds 10hrs per week and you share you weekly wage by that 50hrs and each hour is more than £60 and it does actually save you at least 15 minutes per week then I guess it will pay for itself. Also for older cyclists who maybe struggling a bit with cycling both with ride quality and the weight of the bike I guess it would benefit those too.

It does seem like the sweet spot in pricing must be less than this. I wonder what you have to pay for a sub 10kg, 9kg, 8kg and 7kg folding bike elsewhere. I suspect each kg lost probably represents about £500 extra in pricing.

Diode100

I just don't see that within reasonable limits the weight of a bike is a factor in the time taken for a city commute journey, road & traffic conditions, personal fitness, and survival instinct have a much bigger influence.

Abu Mahendra

Did you pluck that brain teaser from your classroom?

linberl

It would be a helluva lot cheaper (and more beneficial) to just lose a few pounds, lol.

Flimbs

The very motto I live by. A lightweight package it is!

Diode100

That's an axiom that is generally applied to the bottom end of the market where it usually holds true, not sure you can safely apply it to the top end though.

BassNotBass

And then there are those people who ride because they enjoy it and the experience enriches their lives. Riding isn't viewed as an ordeal to be endured for as short a time as possible.

BassNotBass

I find that it rarely holds true at any price point. I've had a blast touring on $50 bikes and I know that the Hummingbird wouldn't even have lasted on these rides much less provided me with 90X the enjoyment.

tcs

I've read the American consumer product testing magazine, Consumer Reports, for the last 50 years. I've learned that while there's a mild correlation with a unit's price and its function and build quality, there are products that perform far above their price level...and products that are expensive for no discernible reason.

downtube

Yes I teach some really hard stuff

By the way I changed my position on Kauai, let me know if you still have questions.

Thanks,
Yan

Abu Mahendra

Questions as such, no. I think I've solved the 2+2=4 conundrum. I may be in the running for the Field's Medal. But I am intrigued by Ramanujan's recursive fractions business...

downtube

At the end of my time as an undergraduate I went to a talk by George Andrews about Ramanujan. He spent an hour talking about how to prove one line in a notebook of results. I was blown away.

Later as a graduate student I took a class on Modular Forms, which was not easy. This guy created Mock Modular Forms and had notebooks of results... amazing.

Thanks
Yan

badmother

Bonzo Banana

That's exactly my experience. Price is only an indicator to possible quality but can often be wrong. High volume bicycle manufacturing plants like Giant in Taiwan use super accurate robot welding to produce very high quality frames often much stronger and neater than low volume hand welded frames. So much reselling goes on nowadays with many brands not actually making anything themselves simply getting another supplier to make it for them and put their own profit margin on. Why not buy from the actual manufacturer directly. Is last years model at 50% reduction really much different to this years model. Also over here in the UK with sterling dropping in value often this year's model is actually inferior than last years to meet the same price point so the older model is actually superior for much less. Getting great value and saving yourself a lot of money just takes a little bit more time.

kidshibuya

The Hummingbird really disappointed. First they delay and delay, then they axe the 20inch and now come up with an unreasonable price. And for a carbon 16inch it's not even that light, my 20inch doesn't weight much more.

Wake me when they are at 3K with a 20inch.

cplager

This is true for bikes in general. The one place this isn't true is for when you have to carry them. For some people, a very light bike can make a big difference (e.g., carrying it upstairs, etc).

That being said, I won't be buying one at anywhere near that price.