Flatland

Joined: A long time ago...

i can garantee you JUST because a bike is made in the US doesnt mean its awsome. the fact wages are higer here has no input in quality when you look at EVERYTHING. ive had a us frame that i wont mention the brand that i am less than impressed with the 'craftmanship'. its a  full cromo too....

you get a GOOD quality asian frame and itll be just as good if not better than anything made in the US. some of these companies have been making QUALITY bikes since before some of our top 'us' brands

take TREK bieks for example, they want to make a big deal about us made frames and w.e. but what about companies that are just as good like Merida bikes which have won gold medals in the olympics. yall are making it sound like ANY asian frame is supposed to be up to par with US companies like standard or kink. at the same price they would be

and i dont think 350 is THAT much. alot of people have jobs and credit cards, and  at some point stuff like this becomes an either you' want it or you dont' kind of deal. how the company justifies the price? who knows, maybe they dont want to make that many to keep better quality control. either way...you either want one or you dont

Joined: A long time ago...

and just to mention that most online stores buy from companys and then mark up the to turn a profit. some just mark there prices up a  LOT higher than rest.

Joined: A long time ago...

i will have to say it yet again. i see people comparing price to qualitiy, especially the fly-suelo frames. i myself owned fly for more than a year and i can tell you, my riding isnt smooth and i smashed that thing few times quite hard. after a year there was no mark of it breaking. i suppose by now the dropouts would have been bent, but that thing withstanded my riding for more than a year and thats pretty good i thing for 120.
i see there is a tendency, even amongst am riders, that everyone switches a frame like every year or so, usually even less. this summer ill be riding 5 years, i have my 3rd frame and even that i think the fly frame was unnecessary (had ep before, fly was too short for me, really short...)
im planning to keep my current frame until it breaks, or until i get sick of it, i think that will take maybe 3 years (the time i had my ep, it was too heavy though).
so 340 is nowhere too much for spending sth that you keep for few years and gets you entertained any given day. just count how much money you spend for drinking-partying and stuff like that.

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Joined: A long time ago...

As a BMX Company owner that makes our stuff in house I can tell you for a FACT that we are losing money at $300 a frame. You guys have no idea what it takes. A lot of Expensive tools, years of experience in welding and machining. Powdercoat alone is $40 a frame. It takes serious skills and a lot of money and a lot of work to make a worthwhile frame. Consider this...We share shop space with a road bike frame builder who can sell frames for $1500 to $3500 that are no more difficult to make that a BMX Frame. Yes, you can buy a Chinese made frame for $200 but you get what you pay for. You would think if you cared about your riding you would go better than bargin basement. If you buy those cheap frames you are ripping yourselves off, and making impossible for guys like me to stay in business. I've been riding flat since 82. I used to buy 4 $120 frames a year. I was glad to pay $300 for a frame (when Standard Bikes came in) that would last of years. So I agree with Adam in that it would be nice not to feel ripped off for once. $300 or even $350 for a good frame is very reasonable. And if you want that really high quality tubing like on the Interia Unit Elite frames $400 is entirely justified

Joined: A long time ago...

haha, this thread slightly amuses me, the way your saying 350s ridiculous , when thats like 450 ausd, I wish frames were all that cheap over here, look at just about any aftermarket brandname bmx frame over here, and full retail, starts like 500, and that doesn't necessarily guarantee us made or anything of that nature either.
I guess thats why so many of us get it sent over from the states.
but even just to get just about any flat stuff just isn't stocked over here.
maybe you should be thankful to even get what you want half the time your not paying through the ass in shipping atleast, yet even for us after the shipping it still works out cheaper most the time as opposed to buying local.
just my rant, i cut it down a little but yeah.