Originally Posted by
a1m80t
I've just started last year and gotten into the hobby with the goal of racing onroad, but quickly got out. I could put up with a lot of things: the rude hobby shop people, racing against with $1000 cars, no beginner class or whatever, etc But there is one thing that really kills RC racing.
Price, Especially maintenance This kills RC racing and gives it the "money pit" saying
Racing is too expensive unless you’re already "set" in life.
One last thing, I laughed when I read ROAR’s guidelines when they said there goals were to make RC racing “affordable”
I haven't had a good read like this in a while...
I'm sorry, but i gotta agree with this guy. The cost of the hobby is the driving force behind the gradual downfall of RC. Its just so expensive to keep up with the fast guys..
(not saying that lack of skill can be compensated by better materials.. we all know that) But when you got a group of guys who are extremely devoted to racing and are at similar skill levels and similar cars, its just who's got the better charger, who's got the better batteries, who's got the latest italian nitro engine, who's got the newest and the fastest gear that determine who is the fastest. This means on top of spending hours practicing and setting up your cars, you gotta get the good stuff in order to keep up with the group. Engines, tires, batteries, bodies wear out. Things get broken and dinged up.. just reality of racing.. cost of racing. I don't mind any of this. Competition is expensive. More serious about racing, more expensive its gonna get. Face the reality. Some people who are addicted to racing like me would rather skip meals or hang onto odd stuff a little longer so i can afford to buy racing gear.
What I do mind is the chain hobby shops tacking on their gigantic convenience fees on what they sell. See, here's the thing. Hobby shops want to make a quick buck. I've seen few hobby shops that are run by hobbyists like ourselves and many that are run by business men. Has anybody noticed more and more tracks are closing?? Less and less place for us to run our highly a$$ kicking race cars? More hobby shop shelves are being filled with Tmaxx, revo, stampedes??? (basher cars) I think there are 2 possible causes for this.
1. Racers notice the ridiculous prices at the hobby shops and start buying their gear online. Hobby shops try to compensate by hiking their prices higher. More and more racers stay away from buying crap at high prices at the hobby shops and start buying regularly from online vendors, only showing up to the hobby shops to race at their track. Hobby shop's income declines, and they can't pull a profit. They close the track and their investment in rc racing and focus on different things like volcano kits and ho trains.
2. Racers notice the riciculous prices at the hobby shops and start buying their gear online. Racers are exposed to the high tech rc and start running state of the art gear, kicking everybody who buy their cars and gear at the local shop into the novice and beginners class. Local hobby shop can't stock cool state of the art stuff cause they first gotta sell their traxxas nitro 4tec from 2 years ago and the tamiya 'new' beetle and kyosho sandmaster that's been sitting on their shelves for 10 years. Racers start asking hobbyshop owners to order serpent, mugen, team magic, xray parts but the hobbyshop owner doesn't know what the hell they are talking about. After research, the shop owner tries to order them, but because it took such an effort, he doubles the price. Oh yeah, and it will be here in a week. Racers laugh, going back to online vendors for their supplies, getting them in 2 to 3 days at half the price. Shop closes track and focus their attention in roping in suckers and kids into buying bashers (evader, tmaxx, revo, all hpi cars except maybe pro4 and r40).. who play in their back yard, and when something breaks, comes to them for parts or pay them to fix it.
Sorry I ended up kind of rambling.