Torque and Chrome

why do motorcycle wheels cost so much?

A chrome 20 inch wheel for a car is about $300 to $500 each. Why is a chrome 18 inch wheel for a motorcycle about $900?

Public Comments

1. You'll find that anything motorcycle-related costs 3x as much. My $10 car oil change costs $30 (that's high considering I do it myself). The reason is that the market is so much more specific on bikes. Say there are 2 billion people that own cars. The cost to manufacture the parts for all those cars is a lot less because they know they're going to sell a TON of parts. There aren't nearly as many bikes because it's a specialty hobby. So to make any money they have to jack the prices because not as many people are going to buy those parts.
2. I really think Nick K has a point.
3. you don't need chrome wheels
4. It's like Starbucks coffee. People will pay that much.
5. Supply and demand. The demand for motorcycle wheels isnt as much as it will be for cars. Why do atv shocks cost 900-1400 when a truck shock is around 100. Same reason.
6. Nik is right. It's called "economy of scale." When you make a ton of things, the per-unit price goes down because research, testing, and tooling costs are spread out over more items. The same goes for profit. If a company is selling 10,000 car rims per day, they can afford to make only a small profit on each one. When a company sells only a few rims per day, they need to be making enough on each to keep the lights on and the doors open. One of the reasons the Japanese are so dominant with performance and price is that they can roll costs into the larger corporation and take a smaller profit on each machine. They also share engineering with their automotive and industrial branches. Harley only does one thing, and they can't spread cost out like that.
7. tell me about it try getting 2 front brake discs £500 or nearly £300 for 2 tires where u can get 10 tires for a car for that money a standard ford car brake pads 4 are cheaper than 2 pairs for a bike