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what once took 4 months of an average workers wage can now be paid for with a day's labour.
I doubt if one would sell a 1890s Irwell today, a day's labour would be enough to pay for it!
Interesting (bike) history lessons, however I'll stop continuing to talk off topic now.
Tijs-
I doubt if one would sell a 1890s Irwell today
It would certainly struggle in today's market against the likes of the BTwin Kemmel, which is an objectively superior bike at approximately 1% of the cost in terms of hours worked to earn enough to buy one. Putting it another way, the cost of the Irwell is almost exactly the same as the new Cervelo C5 with 9070 Di2 which people are complaining is too expensive to be used on the quality of road which was the universal norm in 1890 :-)
It's not off topic - the pricing of bicycles is an "Innovation - for better"
gbj_tester
The "nothing new under the sun" thread :-)
Simple inflation adjustment makes £17 in 1890 about £2k now, although taking account of the faster growth in wages, that Irwell would have cost today's worker more like £8k if we hadn't got better at making bicycles in the last 125 years. If there's a miracle, it's not that the layout of the bicycle frame had pretty much been nailed within 5 years of Starley's first Safety, but that what once took 4 months of an average workers wage can now be paid for with a day's labour.