[Viewpoint] The Hi‑Fi and bicycle markets, bound together by an unexpected twist of fate

April 2026 Editorial

You've made your bed, now lie in it!

Author: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT-Audio Italy
Published: April, 2026

The old Italian saying, “You wanted the bike, now pedal!” (the equivalent of “You've made your bed, now lie in it!”) feels perfectly suited to what's happening in these two markets. Manufacturers have steadily pushed prices higher and higher, and the result is a predictable drop in consumer interest. Leaving aside hi‑fi - an area that attracts fewer and fewer people for reasons I've explained many times in past editorials - who would have imagined that, in an age obsessed with health and with “green at all costs,” even the market for human‑powered two‑wheelers would fall into crisis? The number of people practising the sport has actually grown over time; not to mention the huge enthusiasm for e‑bikes! You'd expect a booming market. And yet the opposite is happening: the race to build the most expensive bicycle is driving sales into the ground and alienating enthusiasts.

It should be obvious to anyone that when a top‑tier bicycle starts costing more than a 1000cc sport motorbike, consumers begin to feel taken for a ride (pun intended), and they walk away. The same dynamic applies to the frenzy around multi‑million‑euro hi‑fi systems. When a market turns into a circus, visitors eventually get tired of paying for the ticket.

In an insightful analysis by BikeItalia, you'll find statements like this:

“The problem isn't that bicycles costing 12 or 15 thousand euros exist. The problem is that the modern equivalent of yesterday's “top‑of‑the‑range” bikes simply no longer exists. What was once an attainable dream has now been pushed down to the entry level, while the top keeps moving higher and higher, out of reach for most people.”

Sound familiar? And then this:

“The future of bike prices depends on a choice: keep chasing innovation for its own sake, or return to designing bikes for real people.”

As if that weren't enough, on the page Tutto MTB e Ciclismo we read:

“The main cause of this disaster is no mystery, because it speaks a language everyone understands: prices have gone insane, completely disconnected from the real value of the products and from the financial means of ordinary people.”

And it continues:

“The paradox is staggering: manufacturers and brands claim to be doing well despite collapsing sales, simply because they've raised prices far beyond any real technical improvements. It's speculation disguised as innovation, where the performance differences between one model and another are so tiny that you'd need scientific instruments to detect them. Consumers aren't stupid; they know perfectly well that these price hikes don't reflect any genuine technological revolution, but only the decision of a few to squeeze as much as possible out of a dying market.”

And finally:

“As long as the cycling industry keeps treating its customers as people to extract maximum profit from, the market will continue to shrink, shops will keep closing, and the market will slide into an even deeper decline.”

All of this sounds painfully familiar to me. Hi‑fi stores are becoming increasingly rare, oligopolies persist - often the direct offspring of aggressive distributors who disguise direct‑to‑consumer sales as intermediary operations. Of course, many will insist this isn't true, that the market has never been healthier, that trade shows are packed (with people looking, not buying), that stores are full of young customers (yes - young, meaning over 60), and that the many companies shutting down (including some with prestigious histories) are doing so for reasons unrelated to the industry's crisis.

We're free to believe fairy tales, but sellers have always told customers that business is booming; it's one of the oldest tricks in psycho‑economics. “Dear Madam, I sell 50 of these sweaters a month.” And don't fall for the myth of rising revenues: that's inflation and uncontrolled price hikes talking, while profits are actually shrinking. The same thing is happening in the luxury food & wine sector - but that's a topic for another bitter reflection.

In conclusion: building an industry around the ultra‑rich may pay off in the short term, but it's unsustainable in the long run. Why? Simple: the ultra‑rich live off the “flavour of the month,” and once they've bought an exclusive hi‑fi system out of boredom, they'll soon crave new and completely different stimuli. Not only that, but the idea that “less is more” is gaining traction among this clientèle, as shown by the trend of ultra‑expensive phones that only make calls (no internet, no social media, nothing else). The Times They Are A‑Changin', as Bob Dylan once sang.

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