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I quite like bicycles...

...and I think I want one of these...

Regrettably, the Turner Czar is a US$9,000 bike as it stands as pictured (the Enve carbon wheelset alone is $2K).

But the frame/rear shock is $3,720 locally and I reckon I could do the rest for another $2,100...[sigh]

Or perhaps not. But...but...damn...I still want one.

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Comments

  • As the risk of seeming ignorant, what makes it worth $9k?

  • At the risk of sounding stupid, people being prepared to pay that sort of money for it.

  • It's only worth what people are prepared to pay...bit like hi-fi really. Or cars. Why buy a Macintosh when you can get a Yamaha that'll do the same thing? Same goes for a Mercedes Benz when a Holden would be sufficient..

    Basically, it's a moulded carbon fibre frame with some fairly high spec weave material and a fair bit of hand build into the mix - so it has quite a build cost compared to more typical carbon fibre frame. The designer/manufacturer is a low volume [boutique) US brand with a marquee to maintain...that costs extra. Retail on the Fox shock is around $400 but this one is a custom jobbie to suit the suspension design - more low volume, high value add stuff.

    After that...those ENVE wheels (yes the name is stupid) are bespoke carbon fibre rims laced up to very expensive Industry9 hubs...more brand name, low volume stuff with spectacular prestige matched by their asking price. Either way they are extremely light, very strong and remarkably stiff...so I read. Though I'd be happy with a Hope wheelset that costs a quarter of that...the handlebars are also ENVE carbon (only $300).

    The forks are about $900 on the open market (more carbon and exotic material plus a shitload of engineering) and the rest of the stuff (contact points) are another small prestige brand, Thomson. Drivetrain is the latest in carbon fibre and titanium and costs a bomb (about $1,200) compared to other stuff that does a remarkably similar job for roughly half that (it just weighs a few grams more and has less cachet).

    It's not actually worth nine grand to me...it's not even worth five...but it something I'd love to own and ride none the less. I will never own a trophy car, live in a trophy house in an trophy location or own a trophy hi-fi system...but I could own and ride a trophy bike.

  • Just get it B-)

  • with a road bike I can understand that fancy materials (weight reduction and strength) is to extract that 1% advantage over another, especially climbing. But dirt bike riding has a significant aspect that road riding doesn't have - rider technique/skill, which will account for any slight difference in machinery. (not talking about cheap equipment failure). A $9000 dirtbike is for sponsored/factory riders and as GM suggested to lift money out of peoples' pockets.

  • You can probably build a school in Vietnam for $9000.

  • edited December 2013

    Twodogs said:
    A $9000 dirtbike is for sponsored/factory riders and as GM suggested to lift money out of peoples' pockets.

    That may well be true. If so though..the same goes for a $9000 road bike...or even a $14000 road bike like this one http://www.bikebug.com/bikes-road-colnago-c59-disc-2014-ad11-p-29404.html being ridden in a wildly inappropriate but entertaining fashion here
    (only modification is the use of trial bike brake levers)

    For someone like me...this wouldn't be about riding to win races...just riding with a bit of chasing others around a track. As with all things at the fancy end of the scale...it'd be nice to own and ride a high performance orientated bike over the more populist factory offerings (that do the same job almost as well).

    Given the choice...wouldn't any of you take an M3 over a Corolla even if the M3 makes no obvious practical & economic sense?

  • Oh, the price is fine with me, I just didn't understand why it was that price. (I do now). You can't get any kind of decent kind of motorbike for that much and for most people that's a luxury (second vehicle). If I was into bicycles I'd want to build one from scratch with fancy parts.

  • Just get it B-) its Christmas

  • MALfunction said:
    Just get it B-) its Christmas

    Can't afford it. Can't justify it. :(

  • edited December 2013

    just wanting it ,justifies it :)

  • I must say it does look nice

  • Think what Im going to do is whack a similar version of the Turner forks on my current bike and (perhaps) sort out another wheelset. Both lighter than the current setup and will give better handling as a result. If i ever manage to break the current frame then I'll look at a bling frame

  • How much is forks and wheels ? $2k ?
    Do you need to change the gearsets when you change wheels ? ( maybe that's what wheelset means?)

  • Sounds like a plan

  • New fork would be mid $800's. I can use the current one on another bike with a lesser quality (and currently broken due to blown seals) fork...so that would be a win.

    Wheels depends on quite a few choices. First is factory or custom. I have factory wheels at the moment (Crank Brothers Cobalt 3) that are very good. Good enough to wonder whether extra money spent would get a pay off. Might be better to drive them until death then go nuts with some custom wheels - Hope hubs, DT Swiss spokes and some carbon rims. Theres a bloke in Lennox Head that would make up something very decent for around a grand. Or I could learn myself how to do it....hmmm.

    Both would help me get the most from myself and the frame and for well less than the cost of a new bike. Current driveline is well sorted and needs nothing unless I break something.

    That Turner is still something nice...

  • Righto. Just did a lap of a proper cross country (XC) mountain bike (MTB) track on the NSW Central Coast. I used the basic but capable hard tail bike I have with its broken fork but that really wasn't the issue.

    As some may know…I am hardly the vision of the athlete splendid. Just a middle aged man with a slightly higher VO2 max than most blokes my age. Nor am I a random risk taker…but, by Crikey, did I spend the best part of an hour in a state somewhere between shitting myself, exhilaration and exhaustion or what?

    Ourimbah XC track is nearly nine kilometres of brilliance to which I granted the best part of my mediocrity that I could manage. It was a hoot. I didn't die. I wasn't injured. I was hopeless. It was fantastic. Getting a Turner would be like giving a teenager with a learners certificate the keys to a late model Bugatti and saying there are no road rules.

    [sigh]

  • I hear Bugatti's are hard to steer.

    Ferraris are worse though!

    How did you get to the Central Coast? Long drive just to go for a bike ride :O Sounds like you had fun though :-b

  • Hanging out to start training again ,its been to long .

    Cheers

  • JohnR said:
    How did you get to the Central Coast? Long drive just to go for a bike ride :O Sounds like you had fun though :-b

    Family Xmas…just about the only reason to go anywhere near Sydney at the best of times. Heading home over the weekend but spreading the trip over a couple of days this time due to visiting a mate in Canberra (no time for Stromlo sadly).

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