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@gbj_tester
The raw steel used to make a bike like that accounts for around $8 of the price with steel at $500/tonne, and the aluminium is about the same given it's 3.5 times the price of steel but there's quite a bit less of it.
I was in Asda earlier and had a look at the said bike, and it is indeed a total pile of shite, but it is worse than it needs to be in both quality and riding experience because they've tried to make it look a bit like what mountain bikes looked like 20 years ago.
If they threw away the shifters and multi-speed block (yes, at this price point you still get screw on freewheel blocks, not cassette hubs), cut the fabrication cost by fitting caliper brakes instead of V-brakes and fitted some nice semi-slick[1] 1.5" tyres, it could be 5kg lighter at the same price[2]. So many of these BSOs get ridden in top gear all the time that making it a single speed would make no appreciable difference to the user experience. Caliper brakes would be less likely to be unhooked the way we so often see the chavs riding them, and as most of the scum who ride these things use their £100 sneakers to stop their bikes braking power seems not to be a high priority.
[1]I know true slicks would work even better, but some allowance has to made for the stupidity of Joe Public
[2]The Asda BMX is 15kg and £50. Even with heavier 700c rims and tyres, imagine how much you could take off with a 40% budget increase to swap out some of the steel parts for aluminium.