4. "How can you have such low prices?"

Ironically, we're always asking about our competitors, "How can they have such high prices?". In fact, despite the fact that East European labor costs are lower than in Western Europe, the actual cost of producing a high-end hand-made racing frame is about the same everywhere (robot welding in Taiwan is another story). The old guard of Europe is fond of perpetuating the myth of the master framebuilder who slowly crafts each racing frame from start to finish, or teams of monkish artisans working under his close supervision. This is mostly bunk, but we're all succeptible to paying extra for this comforting thought. The high cost of many European bikes has very little to do with production costs, it is almost entirely a matter of distribution and marketing.

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Inevitably, when it comes to bikes, a lot of people believe that price = value ("if it costs more, it must be better"). We all make this assumption almost daily in the marketplace, sometimes it's true. For some, their chief joy is telling others about how much they spent on a bike, or on a legendary brand name. If pride of ownership is what gets you on your bike and makes riding fun, more power to you! But the truth is that whatever our brand name may lack in media status is more than made up for in performance, and once you ride a Fort frames you'll know about real pride of ownership.