Not sure I agree with this. I am 62 next month been riding bikes just after I could walk. My last MTB before the E S works was back in 03 Marin mount vision Pro, like before I bought my first S Works I tried lots of other bikes back then, for me the Marin felt the best, cost back in 03 was 4K Gbp, kept it 16 years. Like before I bought my first S Works I tried the other high end EMTBs for me as an overall package including support the S Works came out tops, the price is what it is. Ok my bikes have had a few snags but they get sorted while I wait even over lockdown. I have friends that have other high end EMTBs that have had to wait weeks just to get problems authorised .Yes the high end S Works are expensive but like with everything the best comes at a price.Yes and the more idiots there are who blindly pay it the more they will keep putting the price up.
Thing is a Porsche comes with the driving ability the handling and the performance and the brand value to justify it.
Mountain bikes are hard to tell the difference between brands and the motors and batteries are all similar now too. The build quality sucks and its all far Eastern junk of poor quality and reliability.
This ain't no Swiss Time piece or German engineering or British racing heritage. This is mass produced low cost unreliable heavily marketed and replaced yearly which is not a good recipe for high pricing.
Both bike shops and brands need to buy and sell volume and only 12 months ago you could get 40% off an end of season bike. That was before these insane increases.
The winding down of the pandemic and opening up of holidays and other suppressed markets will suck the life right out of this bike bubble and all the money flowing in to it. The stock will go unsold and the market will be flooded and pricing will crash.
The reality check is that mountain biking is a 6/10 fun sport at the best of times. It's not that accessible with limited trail centers and transporting them is a hassle and has a high injury rate. Combine that with what was already a high cost to entry and your market place wasn't that big. This new pricing will make it even smaller.
You only have to look at the small number of subscribers on YouTube channels dedicated to this stuff. It's niche at best even in the pandemic.
The brands are basically crapping on loyal customers in order to exploit new transient customers who will be bored within 3 to 6 months and put their bikes on the market. I'm seeing it already on Facebook.
That is a problem on the horizon for brands who don't seem to look further than 12 months in to the future.