This Monkey Business Is Costing More Everyday

<===This monkey lives on carbon fiber for free. It doesn't come so cheaply for you and I though!

The new shiny toys for next year keep coming and they are pretty fantastic. Carbon fiber mountain bike frames, whether you think they are a good idea or not, are here, and there are going to be more 29"ers made of the stuff than ever before. What does it all mean?

Well, I don't know the answer to that exactly, but I do have an opinion! Take it for what it is worth.....

So, here we have the next wonder material being shaped, formed, and engi-nerded into stuff they are telling us will be lighter, stiffer, and stronger. Will it be so? Hmmm..........maybe. One thing I do know, it will be astronomically more expensive to buy these bicycles.

Now before I go on, I should mention that having the coolest new mountain bike isn't something I am alien to. Oh no! I have been there on more than one occasion. I bought a super spendy Klein back in the day, amongst several other rigs following that. Getting that fancy new sled is fun, if you can afford it.

If......

That's the thing here, will you be plunking down the greenbacks, plastic, or what ever digital transaction you prefer to the tune of an amount just south of five figures? Just for a carbon fiber mountain bike? That's where it is going with these ultra-techy rigs these days. Now I have friends that would say that in a successful market, this sort of ultra-techy product is just what the market needs, will bear, and will propel it forward. Maybe ten months ago, when these rigs were being sent into production, yes. Now we're playing under entirely different rules. And I would argue that it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Of course, the option remains to not buy this sort of rig. And there is the hope that the new ideas will be rendered in the aluminum flavor. But all this fancy new monkey business on the horizon is priced in the rediculous zone, if you want to know what I think.