Not taking sides or interfearing, but having been in the process of developing custom parts for our bikes, the time , money, research, and development of parts is expensive. Something like a belt drive involves blueprints, engineering drawings, building prototypes, product liability issues, and a lot of time. The units available for sale have been paid for unless the seller owns the manufacturing facilities. These costs can't all be absorbed entirely by the manufacturer/supplier. They are passed on to the consumer/user who gets the benefit of the product. Single or small production runs are more costly per unit than large runs. Who knows how much has been invested up-front to have this system available. I'm sure it's several thousands of dollars. As sales increase the cost might go down as with any other mass produced product. Escalating materials, labor and overhead costs drive the final consumer pricing. For sales volume I'm sure the cost is as low as possible, including a profit margin, for the current conditions. I too want one, but the cost is just out of my investment range.
I'm certainly not defending the guy, just passing along my insights and experiences in the manuacturing/production area in the course of discussion.
