Is it just me or do bikes cost way too much these days? Yeah, I’m tight, but I’m also sane, and when I look at the price of some of the latest and greatest crotch rockets it beggars belief. Especially for some of the top spec jobbies. It doesn’t seem too long ago that you could get a Mars bar for 30p, and a decent litre sportsbike for under £10k, like the big bang R1 for instance that arrived in 2009 with a £9k(ish) price tag… before it leapt up a few grand almost overnight. Figure that? For me that was the turning point of bikes getting dearer and I’ve not stopped crying since. Of course, manufacturers need a return on their technological investments, pioneering production techniques and utilisation of pricey materials.
There’s no denying that while bikes now cost more, they’ve never been greater, lighter of faster. But just how fancy a bike do you really need on Her Majesty’s highways? Slide control, wheelie control and all the other glitzy features that chaperone most high-end sportsbikes – are they strictly necessary? And more to the point, are they worth the extra wonga? Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Luddite. I remember the days pre-tech very well and they weren’t always that pretty. God knows how many times I’ve been saved from clogging up hospital wards with self-inflicted injuries thanks to some smart algorithm-based function.